DIFFERENT MARTYRS

Recently, we wrote of some Franciscans being considered for sainthood. Here are two more, both Americans, both martyrs, but with a difference.  One died quickly, the other a long endurance of suffering.

FRIAR WOJCIECH TOPOLINSKI was a Polish-American born in 1885.  I found no  details of his early life, but know he was a  member of the St. Anthony of Padua  (Franciscans) Province in America.  He had a doctorate in theology and held many prestigious responsibilities throughout his life; friar of St Anthony province in USA (from 1903), Professor at the Order's Theological Seminary in Rome; Apostolic Confessor at the Basilica of Loreto and St. Peter's Basilica;  and finally the Postulator General of the Order.

He was  postulator for the beatifications of Queen Hedwig, Card. Stanislaus Hozjusz’s and Fr Raphael Chyliński, and Bl. Kinga’s canonization.

He was also rector of St Francis High School in Athol SpringsNYUSA (1927),  and served as pastor  in  Shamokin PA,Lawrence,  MA, TrentonNJ, MilwaukeeWI, and BuffalloNY.  

After researching and promoting the cause for Beatification of Friar Didák Kelemen in Hungary in 1939, he stopped to visit his homeland of Poland.  

While there the Second World War broke out and he was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to the Sztum Prison Camp. on the 19th April, 1940, Fr. Topolinski was told he would be released, with the proviso that he return to the USAbut instead was lead to the bathhouse and drowned in a tub by the guards. 

Having a priest in our own Archdiocese, whom we pray for daily, with the dreaded ALS, we have a clue how debilitating it can be.

FRIAR CAMILIUS DELUDE,an American born Franciscan, was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's Disease (ALS) in 1993 and given only a few years to live.  Brother Camillus defied the odds and went on to live with this cross for more than two decades.

Br. Camillus was part of the founding Friars at Marytown at Kenosha, Wisconsin, and was part of the original crew to publish the Immaculata Magazine. After Marytown, he moved to Libertyville, Il,  and continued to work on the press apostolate.

He was always prayerful and never a complaint was heard, even as he slowly began to lose the ability to move. He was a dedicated member of the Militia Immaculata as a 'Knight at the Foot of the Cross', offering up his suffering and praying for the intentions of the MI, the Order, and the Church. He died in 2014.