Wyższe Seminarium Duchowne Misjonarzy Matki Bożej z La Salette w Dębowcu (1952-1955)

Abstract

On 3rd July 1952 the communistic authorities in the scope of all-Poland action of liquidation of the church secondary schools, overtook by force a part of the monastery building of the Holy Virgin of La Salette Missionaries in Rzeszów, closing the Small Seminary which operated there and in Dębowiec, where there was no Saletinian secondary school but a noviciate. In October 1952 the monks opened there the Higher Theological Seminary because they were afraid that the authorities of the Polish Peoples’ Republic would take the remaining part of the monastery. Twelve clerics studies there, in the majority they were noviciates who heroically defended their vocation and existence of the Saletinian noviciate in July 1952. The Saletinian clerics mainly came from the Przemyśl diocese. During studies two clerics resigned. Rector of Holy Virgin of La Salette Higher Theological Seminary of Missionaries in Dębowiec was priest Stanisław Zawisza, lecturers were priests: Paweł Brożyna, Franciszek Danioł, Tadeusz Piękoś and Roman Wojtunik. In November 1955 the Saletinians closed the higher school in Dębowiec sending en clerics for further theological studies to the Higher Theological Seminary in Lublin, in which professors of the Catholic University of Lublin lectured. Eight out of twelve clerics who started studies in Dębowiec, accepted a sacrament of priesthood in Lublin in 1959. Holy Virgin of La Salette Higher Theological Seminary of Missionaries in Debowiec met the challenge offering clerics sufficient knowledge and becoming the key bastion of the defensive strategy of the monastery against liquidation by the communists in the fifties of 20th century.