Yesterday, July 7th, was the feast day of an entire family, a father & mother, their children and their unborn baby - The Ulma Family

 

Ulma family’s liturgical feast day is July 7

Źródło: arch. Mateusza Szpytmy | EpiskopatNews | Flickr | CC BY-NC-SA 2.0; koloryzacja - Aleteia PL

Victoria Ulma with her six children (ca. 1943).

Philip Kosloski 

While the Ulma family were martyred on March 24, their feast day is observed on July 7, the parents' wedding anniversary.

The entire Catholic Church rejoiced at the beatification of the Ulma family on September 10, 2023. It was the first time an entire family was beatified at a single celebration, as well as the only time in the history of the Church that an unborn child was beatified

Jozef and Wiktoria Ulma and their seven children — including a baby who lost his life at birth — were executed on March 24, 1944, along with the Goldmanns, the Jewish family of eight they had been sheltering for a year and a half.

Generally speaking, saints and beatified persons are honored in the liturgical calendar on their date of death. Since saints are confirmed to already be in Heaven, the date of a saint’s death would be considered their “heavenly birthday,” or the day of their “entrance into Heaven.”

fot. BP KEP / EpiskopatNews | Flickr | CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Exceptions

However, this is not always possible or desirable, for a variety of reasons, including if the saint's death date may coincide with either another major feast, or the penitential season of Lent. In these two cases, their liturgical feast would always be replaced by the other feast/season and wouldn't be celebrated.

A perfect example of this situation is the feast of St. John Paul II. He died on April 2, 2005, which often falls during Lent or the first week of Easter. As a result, the Church assigned October 22 to be his feast, which is the anniversary of his elevation to the papacy.

Married couples

In the case of the few married couples who have been recognized as blessed or saints, their wedding anniversary is often chosen, such as Sts. Louis and Zelie Martin, whose liturgical feast is July 12.

The Ulma family's feast day follows a similar pattern, as March 24 always falls during Lent and would make it difficult to have a joyous celebration.

The Church instead has chosen July 7 as their liturgical feast, as Jozef and Wiktoria were married on July 7, 1935. The postulator of their cause confirmed this date.

Initially this feast will only be celebrated in Poland. Local bishops would have to approve this feast to be included on their calendar, or the current pope could extend it to the universal Church after their future canonization.

Individuals can still celebrate this feast in their own family devotions, even though it may not be on their local liturgical calendar.

The joy and excitement at the beatification of the Ulma family in Poland

 

Ulma family beatified on a ‘day of joy’ in Poland

By Andrea Gagliarducci, Shannon Mullen

On a “day of joy” in Poland, the Catholic Church on Sunday for the first time beatified an entire family at once: Jozef and Wiktoria Ulma and their seven children, who were martyred during World War II for sheltering two Jewish families from the Nazis.

“It would be misleading if the day of the beatification of the Ulma family served only to bring back to memory the terror of the atrocities perpetrated by their executioners, on whom, by the way, the judgment of history already weighs heavily,” Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, said Sept. 10 in his homily at a beatification Mass attended by some 30,000 people in the family’s village of Markowa in southeastern Poland.

“Instead,” the cardinal continued, “we want today to be a day of joy, because the page of the Gospel written on paper has become for us a lived reality, which shines brightly in the Christian witness of the Ulma couple and in the martyrdom of the new Blesseds.”

Operation “Reinhardt,” a program aimed at murdering all of the Jews in Germany-occupied Poland, began to be implemented in the Ulma family’s area of Poland in late July and early August 1942.

The Nazis began to deport the roughly 120 Jews in the Markowa area to a labor camp and extermination camp. Approximately 54 Jews in hiding were found and shot on Dec. 14, 1942. An additional 29 Jews continued to hide in Markowa, including the eight who found refuge with the Ulma family.

Early on March 24, 1944, a Nazi patrol surrounded the home of Józef and Wiktoria Ulma on the outskirts of Markowa. They discovered the Jewish people hiding on the Ulma farm and executed them.

The Nazi police then killed 31-year-old Wiktoria, who was pregnant and in premature labor, and 44-year-old Józef outside their home.

An additional order sealed the fate of the remaining family members: “Kill the children, too.”

Stanisława, 7; Barbara, 6; Władysław, 5; Franciszek, almost 4; Antoni, 2; and Maria, 1, were executed.

The seventh Ulma child to die was the couple’s unnamed son, who was in the process of being born. The boy had been incorrectly described in some news reports as the first unborn child to be beatified, a key detail that the Vatican recently clarified. Though there was no time to baptize the child, what transpired instead was what the Church calls a “baptism of blood.”

In his reflections on Sunday, Cardinal Semeraro also made a point to honor the memory of the Ulmas’ Jewish friends who also were killed that day.

“Today, together with the new Blesseds, we also want to remember their names," he said. They were: Saul Goldman with his sons Baruch, Mechel, Joachim, and Mojżesz, as well as Gołda Grünfeld and her sister Lea Didner, together with her young daughter Reszla. Among those at the beatification ceremony Sunday was Poland’s chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich.

Beatification in the Catholic Church is one step before canonization, when a person recognized for special holiness is officially declared to be a saint. Those beatified receive the title “Blessed” and may receive public veneration at the local or regional level, usually restricted to those dioceses or religious institutes closely associated with the person’s life.

The beatification of the incredible Ulma family of Poland who were all martyred for love of God and love of neighbor

 

Beatification of the Ulma family in Markowa, Poland 

POPE

• POPE FRANCIS
• ANGELUS
• POLAND
• SAINTS AND BLESSED
• APPEAL
• JEWS

Pope: Blessed Ulma family a model of Christian care for others

Pope Francis recalls the beatification of the 9 members of the Ulma family in Poland, and praises their heroism for giving their lives to save Jews during World War II.

By Devin Watkins

The nine members of the Ulma family were beatified on Sunday in their Polish hometown of Markowa, where they were martyred by Nazi soldiers for harbouring Jews during World War II.

Pope Francis upheld the family's actions as model of Christian life for everyone to follow, as he spoke at the Angelus prayer on Sunday.

He called the Ulmas “a model to imitate in our efforts to do good and serve those who are in need.”

“In response to the hatred and violence that characterized those times, they embraced evangelical love,” he said.

The Pope added that the Polish family “represented a ray of light in the darkness of the Second World War” and invited everyone to offer a round of applause for the new Blesseds.

Pope Francis went on to urge Christians to follow their example by “opposing strength of arms with charity, and violent rhetoric with tenacious prayer.”

“May we [pray] especially for the many countries that suffer due to war,” he said. “In a special way, let us intensify our prayers for martyred Ukraine… which is suffering greatly.”

Beatification Mass

Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, presided over the beatification Mass in Markowa, which was concelebrated by 7 Cardinals and 1,000 priests, with over 32,000 faithful registered to attend.

The beatified family members are Jozef and Wiktoria Ulma, and their children Stanisława, Barbara, Władysław, Franciszek, Antoni, Maria, and an unnamed child who was born at the moment of Wiktoria's martyrdom.

In his homily at the Mass, Cardinal Semeraro said the Ulma’s family home became “an inn where the despised, outcast, and death-stricken was welcomed and cared for.”

He said Jozef and Wiktoria lived “a holiness that was not only marital but was fully embedded in their entire family.”

Blessed unnamed-babe

Cardinal Semeraro also upheld the Christian witness of the newly-beatified unnamed child.

“Without ever having uttered a word,” he said, “today the little Blessed cries out to the modern world to welcome, love, and protect life, especially that of the defenseless and marginalized, from the moment of conception until natural death.”

He said the child’s “innocent voice seeks to shake the consciences of a society where abortion, euthanasia, and contempt for life seen as a burden and not a gift are rampant.”

“The Ulma family,” said the Cardinal, “encourages us to react to that throwaway culture, which Pope Francis denounces.”