Priest, Religious, Martyr
Innocent Guz was born on March 18, 1890, in what is now Ukraine. He joined the Franciscan order in 1908 and was ordained a priest in 1914. He worked in several parishes. In 1933, he was assigned to the monastery founded by St. Maximilian Kolbe. He served as a confessor and helped to teach the seminarians. He stayed at there for 3 years working and praying. He was in the city of Grodno when German invaded Poland, beginning the Second World War.
In 1940, Father Innocent was arrested by the Russians but somehow managed to escape. He was then caught by the Germans who departed him to the concentration camp called Sachsenhausen. At the end of May 1940, the priests and Jews detained there were kept together for a week and tortured by the guards. At the end of the week. the group was moved to an area for work, but Father Innocent had several fractures and was not able to keep up with the group. He was taken from the group and beaten. After being beaten and kicked, Father was taken to a bathroom. A guard push him into a basin full of water and put a rubber hose in his mouth, killing him. His final words were "I go to the Immaculata".
Father Innocent Gus was beatified along with six other friars in a group of 108 Polish martyrs of World War II by Pope John Paul II in 1999.
For more information see
"Heroic Catholics of the Twentieth Century"
by Sister Elizabeth Ann, SJW
New Hope Publications
New Hope Ky.
http://www.newhope-ky.org
Or
Sisters of St. Joseph the Worker
ssjw.org
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