Wenanty Katarzyniec – patron and intercessor
A testimony of Dzika Figa
I promised this to Father Wenanty, and I am fulfilling that promise with gratitude.
During the pandemic and in the first year of the war in Ukraine, when advertising activity came to a halt, I found myself in a situation that was humanly hopeless. I was torn by enormous dilemmas: should I – in spite of everything – keep my employees, or start letting them go? I held out for six months. That was enough to take me from a well-functioning marketing agency into serious debt.
The sector I worked with had real links to food, agricultural produce and Ukraine.
That was when I entrusted these matters to Father Wenanty.
Step by step, in prayer, I made the decisions that saved me from total indebtedness. I parted with my employees and took over all the work myself. I was very frightened of that, but it turned out to be a valuable – though difficult – lesson.
After a year I regained financial liquidity. But the experience of helplessness, and of the risk of running a company dependent on a single branch of industry, led me to go on praying with Father Wenanty for a new direction in life and a new job.
A year later I found work in a family firm – fifteen minutes from home.
Father Wenanty kept his promise that he would help us from Heaven.
Quietness, humility and faithfulness to God
I have never doubted that God loves me and that he hears me – that is an enormous grace. At the same time, in my life I have gone through, and still go through, a great many different difficulties.
On our road I make bold use of the support of the saints and I do not hesitate to ask for their intercession. After all, they are already much closer to the Lord and can do more – especially when I am lying flat on the ground and calling out… just in case I cannot be seen 😉.
The Sanctuary of the Lord’s Passion in Kalwaria Pacławska
Father Wenanty Katarzyniec is for us the patron of quietness, courage and trust in God’s Providence. His life and spirituality became real support for us during trials we could not have come through under our own strength.
He is the patron of people struggling with material difficulties, with debt, with unemployment and with a sense of helplessness before a reality that overwhelms them.
Who was Father Wenanty Katarzyniec
Father Wenanty Katarzyniec OFM was a Franciscan, a priest and a retreat master, known for his extraordinary simplicity, humility and deep life of prayer. He lived a short life, only 31 years, but an intense one – in complete devotion to God and to the people he served without publicity. He was a close brother and friend of Father Maximilian Maria Kolbe.
He was a quiet, modest and obedient man.
He did not seek great works or recognition.
He taught that the greatest things are born of faithfulness in small matters.
After his death many of the faithful began to experience help through his intercession, especially in matters of work, finances and everyday worries.
The Sanctuary of the Lord’s Passion in Kalwaria Pacławska is a Franciscan sanctuary connected with the ministry of Father Wenanty Katarzyniec. It was here that he carried out his priestly ministry, heard confessions and led a life of prayer in the spirit of Franciscan simplicity.
In the sanctuary there is the miraculous image of Our Lady of Kalwaria, before which pilgrims have prayed for years. Father Wenanty’s confessional has also been preserved – the confessional at which he heard confessions and accompanied people in their spiritual and everyday difficulties.
Kalwaria Pacławska remains an important place of pilgrimage for those seeking the intercession of Father Wenanty and prayer for work, material matters and everyday cares.
If you are going through a difficult time, if you cannot see a way out, if you have run out of ideas for finding help, entrust your cause to the Prayer on the Sycamore and join us with your intention, through the intercession of Father Wenanty.
A quiet witness to the holiness of Father Wenanty
