On Saturday 1 February in the Chapel of the Archbishops of Krakow, the first session of the court of the beatification trial of Father Józef Andrasz Sj.
The figure of the confessor of Sister Faustina Kowalska, Today Blessed, Michał Sopoćko, but another priest who played a very important role in the life of the future Holy, Father Józef AndraSz Si (1891 – 1963) is much less known: This Jesuit was his first spiritual director in the novitiate, They met for the first time in 1933, and also in the last year and a half of his life. Sister Faustina confessed with him also on the day of his death. Then it is no coincidence that Santa Faustina in her “diary” talks about 59 times.
It was an important figure for the spread of the cult of Divine Mercy.
This Polish Jesuit born in 1891 was a man caught with deep spiritual life and at the same time a very active man. He led retreats for religious and seminarian congregations; He collaborated with the magazine The “Messaggero del Cuore di Jesus” and promoted the cult of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; The apostolate of prayer was director of the publishing house; has translated several books on spirituality; He was engaged in the Marian company. A fame of good confessor surrounded him in Krakow.
The lives of Sister Faustina and Father Andrasz crossed łagiewniki: p. Andrasz was the confessor of the Congregation of Our Lady of Mercy – He came once to the quarter to confess the nuns, instead Sister Faustina made the novitiate there. Faustina confessed for the first time by him during the spiritual exercises in April 1933, before the perpetual votes. He opened his heart because he felt it happens from that priest P. Andrasz, already during the first confession, assured Sister Faustina that everything he was living came from God: before he had doubts about it. His words reassured it.
As he explains Don Mariusz BalcerakFather Andrasz’s postulator “At the beginning Sister Faustina thought that the whole affair, especially painting the image of merciful Jesus, was too great for her. So he was looking for help from Father Andrasz, but he said definitely: ‘I do not dissolve it from anything, sister, and it is not allowed to escape these inner inspirations …’. In this sense his role was decisive. Sister Faustina treated Father Andrasz as an authority and, since he was humble and obedient, he obeyed him. “
Already during the II World War, that is, when the cult was not yet officially approved, Father Andrasz, the practice of praying to praying the divine mercy between the nuns of łagiewniki and to recite the crown began. Instead after the war, Father Andrasz wrote a book entitled “Mercy of God, we trust in you”, Published for the first time in 1947.
In it, he described the mission of Sister Faustina and the revelations, explained the meaning of the image and what it means to have confidence in merciful Jesus. P. Jozef Andrasz died in 1963 but his fame of a Holy Priest spread even after his death.
In the Nowy Sacz region, in the south-eastern part of Poland, where the Jesuit came from, since 2015 a Movement of lay people who spread his cult, make his figure know and pray for his intercession.
The initiative started from a group of men who gathered for the adoration of a copy of the image of merciful Jesus, in that wandering period in the diocese of Tarnów.
On November 12, 2024, the Archbishop Marek Jędraszewski He signed a edict in which he announced the decision to start the beatification process of Father Andrasz and the first session of the court of the beatification trial took place on February 1st in Krakow. At the beginning of the court session, the Padre Balcerak postulator asked the Metropolitan of Krakow and the members of the Court to start the beatification process, remembering the figure of Father Józef Andrasz SJ.
Subsequently, the archbishop of Krakow took the floor: He stressed that Father Andrasz died exactly 62 years ago and went down in history as a confessor of the saints.
He recalled that the servant of God lived an extraordinary and dramatic time of heroic testimony of the mercy of God.
Noted that while reading the Santa Faustina diaryit can be sure that Father Andrasz was a confessor characterized by clarity of discernment and resolve.
Sister Faustina always prayed for her confessor and he always remained in his grateful memory. Subsequently, the provincial road of the province of southern Poland of the Company of Jesus took the floor, Father Jarosław Paszyński SJ, who expressed his gratitude to God for the opening of the beatification process of Father Józef Andrasz.
The provincial road stressed that the servant of God carried out his ministry during the Second World War and in the difficult period of communism. “In his ministry Father Józef Andrasz distinguished himself for a great passion for God and for his Church, leading himself a profound spiritual life that was born from the spiritual exercises of San Ignazio di Loyola” – He added.
During the first session of the Court of the Blessed Process of Father Józef Andrasz SJ, the following members of the Court: Don Mirosław Czapla – delegate of the Bishop, Don Andrzej Scąber – promoter of justice, Don Krzysztof Korba – Notary and Don Kazimierz Faron – Auxiliary notary.
