SEPTEMBER 7TH, FERIA

Month in honor of the Seven Dolours of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Today, among the Saint recalled in the Roman Martyrology, we find—

Blessed Ignatius Klopotowski

He was born on July 20th, 1866, in Korzeniówka, Poland, to a pious and patriotic family. Desiring to become a priest, he entered the Lublin seminary in 1883, and was ordained on July 5th, 1891. He was first assigned as a Parochial Vicar of the Conversion of Saint Paul parish as well as Chaplain of Saint Vincent's hospital in 1892. He also taught Sacred Scripture, catechetics, homiletics, moral theology and canon law at the nearby Saint Vincent seminary for fourteen years. He was made Vicar of the Lublin Cathedral from 1892 to 1894, and Rector of the Greek Catholic Church of Saint Stanislaus beginning in 1894. Concerned for the young families in his parishes, he founded an employment center in Lublin and a professional school. He also founded a home to help girls and women escape prostitution; while he also founded orphanages and homes for the elderly. With the Congregation of the Handmaids of the Immaculate he founded a series of rural schools, which brought him unwanted attention and pressure by the Russian authorities. Published several weekly and monthly newspapers, and in 1905 he started the magazine "Polak-Katolik" (Polish-Catholic). In 1908, he decided to move to Warsaw to increase the publications' reach, and to start new ones. With the help of the future Pope Pius XI, he founded the Congregation of the Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Loreto in Warsaw on July 31st, 1920, to help with the publication work.

Father Klopotowski died on September 7th, 1931, of natural causes, and was buried at the Powazki Cemetery, Warsaw, Poland. His heroic virtues having been recognized, and miracles certified by his intercession, on June 19th, 2005, he was declared Blessed by Pope Benedict XVI.