Edmund Bojanowski

Life & Legacy

Edmund Bojanowski (14 November 1814 - 7 August 1871) was a Polish Catholic layman who founded what became four religious congregations. His leadership role in the Society of St. Vincent de Paul led to his contemporaries famously nicknaming him the "second St. Vincent de Paul".
He studied art and literature during his education in Breslau and Berlin before distinguishing himself during a cholera epidemic in which he tended to the ill. Bojanowski founded several orphanages and libraries for the poor and even worked in them to provide for those people. But his main desire was to enter the priesthood: ill health blocked this once and his own death prevented his second attempt after his deteriorating health forced him to stop his ecclesial studies.
His beatification cause opened decades after his death and culminated on 13 June 1999 after Pope John Paul II beatified him in Warsaw on the occasion of his apostolic visit to the nation.