Two days after being wounded in the knife attack that claimed the life of another priest at the Jarosław Abbey in Poland, Father Adrian Mantykiewicz returned to the altar with his head and one hand bandaged and his face still marked by the blows. His first public words to the faithful were of forgiveness.
«We forgive and ask you to pray for us, but in particular I ask you to pray for our attacker and for the grace of his conversion: he is the one who most needs this prayer», he stated during the Mass celebrated on Saturday, September 26, for the repose of the soul of Father Stanisław Zbojnowicz.
According to reports from the Fides agency and AgenSIR, Mantykiewicz was one of the wounded in the attack carried out on Thursday, September 24, at the Jarosław Abbey complex in southeastern Poland. Father Zbojnowicz, 67, died from the wounds he sustained while trying to stop the attacker.
«We forgive»
The rectory church of Saint Nicholas the Bishop had remained closed after the attack. When its doors reopened on Saturday, Father Mantykiewicz, who had suffered minor injuries and was able to return to the abbey after receiving medical attention, presided over the first Mass.
Before the faithful, and still visibly wounded, he wished to explicitly express Christian forgiveness toward the man who had attacked his companions.
«From this place, as a disciple of Jesus Christ, I want to say very clearly, in my name, in the name of Father Marek, and in the name of Father Stanisław, that we forgive», he declared.
The priest also asked for specific prayers for the attacker’s conversion and rejected responding to the crime with hatred: «Let us not respond to evil with evil».
He asks not to hold Ukrainians responsible
The alleged perpetrator of the attack is a 31-year-old Ukrainian citizen, identified by authorities as Ihor M. The man was detained, and the Przemyśl Prosecutor’s Office charged him with murder, attempted murder, and serious injury. A court ordered three months of pretrial detention, which he must serve under hospital conditions due to his health. Experts who examined him detected severe psychotic symptoms that hindered his participation in judicial proceedings.
Mantykiewicz expressly asked that the detainee’s nationality not be used to hold the entire Ukrainian people responsible.
«I ask you not to blame the guilty person’s nation of origin, because the evil was committed by one specific person, a specific person who has a name, a life of his own, and is responsible for his actions», he stated.
The priest also recalled the assistance provided by the abbey to Ukrainians since the beginning of the war and asked that this work not be destroyed by the crime of a single person.
One priest dead and others wounded
The attack occurred on the morning of Thursday, September 24, at the complex historically known as the Jarosław Abbey, which houses the rectory church of Saint Nicholas the Bishop and the Center for Christian Culture and Formation.
The attacker stabbed five people: three priests and two laypersons. Father Zbojnowicz sustained the most serious injuries and died despite medical assistance. Father Marek Pieńkowski, director of the center, had to be hospitalized and undergo two operations.
Pieńkowski had also distinguished himself for his involvement in assisting Ukrainian refugees. Fides reported on Monday that he remained hospitalized.
The Archbishop of Przemyśl, Monsignor Adam Szal, after the attack called for prayers for the murdered priest, for the wounded, and also for the attacker’s conversion. The prelate urged that the tragedy not provoke «hatred» or hostility and called for it not to be used to fuel confrontations.
The funeral of Father Zbojnowicz is held this Tuesday
The funeral rites for Father Stanisław Zbojnowicz began on Monday in Jarosław with the recitation of the Rosary and a Mass presided over by Archbishop Adam Szal.
This Tuesday, September 29, at 10:30 a.m., the Rosary will be prayed at the parish of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in Grzęska, the priest’s birthplace. At 11:00 a.m., the funeral Mass will begin, presided over by Auxiliary Bishop Stanisław Jamrozek, after which his remains will be buried in the local cemetery.
Zbojnowicz was born in Grzęska on October 13, 1958, and was ordained a priest in 1986. He served in several parishes and also at the provincial hospital in Krosno. Since 2010 he had been associated with the church of Saint Nicholas the Bishop and the Jarosław Abbey, where in his final years he especially exercised the ministry of confession.