Poland: Father Andrzej Janicki, MIC

Provincial Curia of the Congregation of Marian Fathers
ul. Św. Bonifacego 9; 02-914 Warszawa
tel.: (0-22)-642 29 00; fax: 651 90 30; e-mail: [email protected]

Warsaw, August 28, 2009

Notice

With great sorrow we notify all our Confreres
that a resident of our Religious House in Skórzec, Poland

Father Andrzej Janicki, MIC,

yesterday passed to the Lord at the age of nearly 89.

The ceremony of Christian burial will take place Monday, August 31, 2009, at 12p.m. at the Church of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle, in Skórzec.
We commend the deceased Fr. Andrzej Janicki to The Divine Mercy: Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord! And let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace.

Curriculum Vitae

Father Andrzej Janicki, son of Jan and Maria née Sudra, was born in Warsaw on August 30, 1920. He graduated from Ms. Aners-Puchaczewska’s private middle school and then continued his education at the Lelewel Secondary School, which he finished in 1938 and entered the Cadet School for the Reserve of Signal Corps in Zegrze. A year later he left the school, having obtained the rank of a “platoon sergeant.” Upon the outbreak of World War II he became the commander of a telephone communications squad in Grodno. After the September campaign, he returned in mid-October to occupied Warsaw and joined in underground fighting against the Nazis. He took part in the Warsaw Uprising and was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant. When the Uprising was vanquished, he was captured and sent to the camp in Lamsdorf near Opole, and then to Murnau, in Bavaria. He was set free on April 29, 1945. In July of that year he found himself in Italy. In August of 1946, he was transported to England along with the troops. In January of 1947, he was discharged from military service and started his polytechnic studies in London. His vocation to religious life was born there. Still in England, he petitioned the Superior General of the Congregation of Marian Fathers for admission. He started the novitiate on November 7, 1947, at the General House in Rome and completed it at the Religious House in Stockbridge, Mass., United States, where he also made his first religious profession on December 8, 1948. From 1948-54 he studied philosophy and theology at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and earned a licentiate degree in theology. On December 8, 1951, he made his perpetual vows in Stockbridge. He was ordained to the priesthood in Washington, D.C., on June 6, 1953, a year before his graduation.

In 1954-57, he served as the deputy director of the Divine Mercy Apostolate and the executive editor of the Polish monthly Róże Maryi for the members of the Association of Marian Helpers in the United States. In addition, he conducted intensive apostolic work in various parishes in the U.S. and Canada. For 25 years, starting in 1957, he worked at the Divine Mercy College in Fawley Court – a Polish secondary school for boys in England that prepared more than 2000 alumnae. In 1957-61, he fulfilled the functions of an educator and religious education teacher. In 1961-83, he was the director there, as well as the principle educator and teacher of Latin, along with holding offices in the government of the English Province. In 1983-97, he was the house superior in London and the Provincial Vicar, later becoming the spiritual director of the Province. In 1997, he was transferred to Fawley Court, where he served as the Provincial Secretary from 1999 and helped with the pastoral work. He remained in Fawley Court until 2006, struggling with health problems, but continuing to serve his confreres and pilgrims arriving to the Divine Mercy Shrine in Fawley Court. He was greatly interested in military matters and in science fiction, both of which were reflected in his literary activity. He wrote novels entitled: “Abducted into Space,” “Venus in predicaments,” and “Down with the Crescent” published by Veritas Publishing House in London, as well as his memoirs from 1937-47 entitled “Following orders” and published in 1995 by the Marian Publishing House in England. From August 2006, he resided at the novice house in Skórzec, Poland. He passed to the Lord on August 27, 2009, at the nursing home run by the Orionist Fathers in Łaźniew.

Fr. Dariusz Mażewski, MIC
Secretary of the Polish Province