Biography of Father Józef Aleksandrowicz

Born in 1869 in Kochanowice, outside Vitebsk. Graduated from Zhytomyr Theological Seminary and was ordained in 1893 for the Diocese of Lutsk-Zhytomyr. From 1893 he served as vicar at the cathedral in Zhytomyr; in 1902 he became administrator of the parish in Khabno, outside Kiev; in 1914, he served in Zaslav; he later became pastor of the parish in Slavuty on the Volyn. Arrested in 1919 and was in Novospassky Prison in Moscow until 1924 when he departed for Poland as part of an exchange. He served in the Łuck Diocese and in 1925 became vicar of the parish in Niewirków; in 1936, he served in Zabƚotce and Litowiż, where he remained during the Soviet and German occupations. On July 5 or 11, 1943, he was murdered during Mass when Ukrainian nationalists from the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) stormed into the church. He was an honorable canon of the Łuck [Oƚycka] chapter. Source: Dzwonkowski (1998), pp. 136-137; GARF, f. 8406, op. 2, d. 51; Madała, p. 18.
Variant Names:
Aleksandrowicz, Józef; Aleksandrovich, Josif Avkeent'evich; Aleksandrovich, Józef
Vitsebsk (Belarus); Z︠H︡ytomyr (Ukraine); Kiev (Ukraine)
male; clergy and religious; executed