Blessed HERMAN
(Karol) STEPIEN 

Conventual Franciscan friar, priest
(1910-1943)

Karol Stepien was born on October 21st, 1910 at Lódz, of a poor family of workers, son of Józef and Marianna Puch. After completing the seven years of the primary school at Lódz, in 1926 he entered the minor seminary of the Conventual Franciscan Friars of Leopoli where, since the school year 1926-27, he attended the middle school. 
On September 2nd he began his noviciate at Lagiewniki, in the suburbs of Lódz, with the name "Herman". He pronounced his temporary vows on September 3rd, 1930. He completed the gymnasium in 1933, and then he began philosophical and theological studies in the Franciscan Major seminary of Krakow. Here, he made his perpetual profession on June 27th, 1934. 

He was a man of great intellectual ability, so the Superiors of the Polish Province decided that he had to continue studying in Rome, at the Pontifical Theological Faculty of St.Bonaventure, where he remained since the autumn of 1934 until 1938. His priestly ordination was on July 25th, 1937. When he returned to Poland, he was sent to the convent of Radomsko. At the same time, he completed his academic studies and, on June 27th, 1939, he obtained the degree in theology at the Theological Faculty of the University "Jan Kazimierz" of Leopoli, his disputing thesis with the title: "The culture of the body and the Christian ethics".
From Radomsko, Father Herman was moved to Vilnius. In 1941, after the beginning of the war, he was sent at first to Iwieniec and then to Pierszaje, to act as vicar of the parish, working alongside the parish priest Father Achilles Puchala. The inhabitants of Pierszaje remember Father Herman as an active and devout priest, who excellently carried out his sacerdotal ministry.

MARTYRDOM 

On June 19th, 1943, in the neighbouring village of Iwieniec there was an insurrection against the Nazi aggressors. A month later the Gestapo came to Pierszaje and imprisoned a lot of people. The Gestapo went also to the priest's house. According to the testimony of a witness, the commandant of the local German gendarmerie, who lived in the priest's house and was a practising Catholic, wanted the two Franciscan priests to search a hiding-place. On this subject, Father Achilles and Father Herman replied that "the shepherds can't abandon their parishioners" and joined the people that had been arrested and condemned to death. 
The Gestapo lead all the prisoners to the village of Borowikowszczyzno. Here, they separated the priests from the parishioners. Father Achilles and Father Herman were taken to the suburbs of the town and were slaughtered in the hayloft of the family Rudowicz. Immediately afterwards, the hayloft was set on fire. This happened on July 19th, 1943.
The other inhabitants of Pierszaje, who had been imprisoned with the two martyrs, weren't subjected to capital punishment, but were deported for hard labour in Germany.
The ashes and the mortal remains of the two martyrs were buried near the church of Pierszaje, where their tomb is still venerated by the believers.

Proclaimed "blessed" by John Paul II on June 13th, 1999.