Konstantin Romuald Budkevich (Butkevich) ( June 19, 1867 , Zubra estate near Kraslava (now Latvia ) - the night of March 31 to April 1, 1923 , Moscow ) - the priest of the Roman Catholic Church , the prelate of His Holiness , was repressed during the persecutions on Christianity in the Soviet Union.
| Konstantin Budkevich | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Date of Birth | June 19, 1867 |
| Place of Birth | Manor Bison under Kraslava (currently Kraslava region Latvia ) |
| Date of death | April 1, 1923 (55 years) |
| Place of death | Moscow |
| A country | |
| Occupation | |
Content
Family and Education
Born into a large Polish noble family of Julian and Maria, nee Borkowska. Father worked as a forester. He studied at the private gymnasium in Kielce, graduated from five classes of the gymnasium in Lublin , the Roman Catholic Theological Seminary in St. Petersburg ( 1890 ), the Imperial Roman Catholic Theological Academy in St. Petersburg with the degree of candidate of theology ( 1893 ).
Church activities 1893 - 1917
- From September 26, 1893 - the priest .
- From February 5, 1894 - Vicar in the parish of the Holy Trinity in Pskov and a law teacher.
- From October 11, 1896 - the vicar in the parish of St. Anthony in Vitebsk and a law teacher.
- On October 8, 1903 - Vicar of the parish of St. Catherine in St. Petersburg, which at that time numbered 30 thousand parishioners.
- From January 13, 1904 - deputy rector of the parish of St. Catherine in St. Petersburg.
- From September 5, 1905 - the rector of this parish.
He proved himself an energetic church leader. When he was abbot in the temple of St. Catherine were made two repairs (in 1907 and 1911 ). He managed to increase the income from the property belonging to the parish, which went mainly to the maintenance and expansion of parochial educational institutions (in 1907 three elementary schools were founded, a four-year vocational school for the training of rural female teachers). He was engaged in raising the level of education in the parish male and female gymnasiums. In 1907, a savings bank was established for those who worked in educational institutions. When the temple functioned House of Crafts, a cheap dining room, created self-education circles for the poorest. Considerable attention is about. Budkevich devoted to charitable projects, attracting parishioners to their implementation. He actively participated in the work of the sports society "Polish Falcon".
Since 1908 , simultaneously with the post of parish rector, he served as dean of the St. Petersburg dean's office, which by 1914 consisted of 18 parishes, 13 branch churches, 10 chapels and 101,330 parishioners. From May 31, 1910 - honorary canon .
During World War I, he was vice-chairman and then chairman of the Society for Assistance to War Victims, supported the activities of the Polish Civil Committee, which helped Polish refugees, and published the weekly Czytania Niedzielne.
Activities in 1917–1923
Since 1917, he actively participated in the activities of the Public Committee (then - the Public Council) of priests during the archdiocesan administration. Since June 7, 1918 - Honorary Prelate of His Holiness .
After the closure of the parish educational institutions, organized secret courses that teachers taught in apartments. He initiated the creation of the Archdiocesan Society of Catholic parents and educators in order to care for the children of Catholics and create private religious schools, but the Soviet authorities refused to allow the functioning of this organization. He headed the Commission on the organization of the livelihood support for the curia, which was involved in collecting donations for the maintenance of diocesan institutions and theological seminaries. After the closure of the seminary, he lectured in a secret seminary, whose rector was Fr. Anthony Maletsky .
In 1922, he refused to sign an agreement on the use of the temple, in the form established by the Soviet authorities, but not sanctioned by the Vatican. He also opposed the withdrawal of valuables belonging to the parish, he transferred basic values to the Polish representation in Petrograd. On behalf of the Catholic Diocese, he negotiated with the Soviet authorities, basing his position on the canonical law of the Roman Catholic Church. He refused to leave his parishioners and go abroad, despite warnings from friends.
Litigation and doom
In 1922 about. Budkevich was questioned in the case of the Catholic clergy of Petrograd, accused of creating an anti-Soviet, counterrevolutionary organization with the aim of opposing the decree on the separation of church and state and instructions on how to implement this decree. In anticipation of the trial was under a written undertaking not to leave. He again refused to leave Petrograd, despite the obvious danger to his life - Fr. Budkevich did not want his escape to harm the interests of Catholic priests and parishioners who remained in Russia.
In early March 1923 he was summoned to court in Moscow, where he was arrested on March 10 . March 21, 1923 began the trial, which lasted five days. The main defendants at the trial were Archbishop Jan Tseplyak and prelate Budkevich. In the biography of. Budkevich said that at the process he spoke slowly, almost quietly, sometimes making excuses, as if allowing himself to remember something: “I valued peace above all, I never liked arguments and quarrels. I dedicated myself to work. ” In his last word, he did not plead guilty, stating that he had always tried to negotiate with the authorities so as not to violate the principles of the existence of the Church in the state.
O. Budkevich was found guilty
in the conscious leadership (...) of the counter-revolutionary actions of the organization of Petrograd Catholic priests, aimed at resisting Soviet power, weakening the proletarian dictatorship, restoring old church property rights and provoking masses of parishioners to protest against Soviet power, provocation, which, given the existence of religious prejudices of this mass, to such speeches, as well as in the refusal to comply with Soviet laws, as provided for in Articles 62, 119 and 121 of the Criminal Code.
By decision of the tribunal, the priest was sentenced to death. Archbishop Tseplyak was sentenced to the same punishment, but the Central Executive Committee replaced him with a death sentence of ten years in prison. The sentence to Budkevich was approved, as he was allegedly a state traitor in favor of the “foreign bourgeois government” (meaning his contacts with Polish diplomats in the interests of the church).
There are various options for stories about the last days of life about. Constantine, but they are all similar in one thing - he calmly listened to the news of the rejection of the petition for pardon and was ready for death. There are two versions of the execution of a priest:
According to the first, the sentence was carried out in the basement of the GPU prison, in the presence of three agents: Evdokimov, Bergman (Vennikas) and Krumma. Bergman’s letter to the lawyer of the murdered priest said that the dean had written a letter to the Pope in advance, was completely calm and addressed Evdokimov with the words: “Please convey my last greeting to Father Tseplyak and testify to him that I remained faithful to the Apostolic See to the last minute”. After the prelate spoke these words, the Bolshevik Zlotkin shot him in the head. According to the second version, “at the place of execution, the prelate crossed himself, blessed the executioner and his two assistants, while he turned away to the wall, whispering the words of prayer. The executioner shot interrupted the priest’s prayer. ”
The memory of the priest
At the beginning of April 1923, a resolution was adopted at a meeting of the Polish Parliament, which stated that “because of his martyrdom for the faith, the late Fr. Budkevich, a follower of the holy martyrs, received the right to veneration as the new patron of our Motherland. ” The Polish poetess Kazimera Illakovich dedicated to him in the folk ballad style the poem “The Tale of Moscow Martyrdom” ( 1927 ) and the poem “Głos księdza Budkiewicza zza grobu” ( 1928 ).
In 1927 in Warsaw , the Committee was established to perpetuate the memory of Fr. Budkevich. In 1936 in the Warsaw church of Sv. Anna was erected a monument to Fr. Budkevich, who was most likely destroyed during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 . One of the streets in Warsaw is named after him.
In 2003, the process of beatification (accredited as the blessed) was officially launched.