O parishioners. A local government authority, tasked with overseeing religious figures in the area, once reported the following about Fr. Jan: “He is a religious fanatic; he stood in the chapel every morning and evening and prayed. In the rented apartment in Gródek, where he lived, there was no radio, he did not subscribe to newspapers, and he only read religious literature. One time when he came to an attorney’s office, waiting for a summons, he was reading a prayer book. He stays in seclusion, tries not to meet anyone, and strictly follows religious canons. By his example, he educates religious activists.” In 1987, he entered the Congregation of Marian Fathers and in 1988 made his first vows. In 1990, he became the first Superior of the Ukrainian Vicariate, and in 1991 Pope St. John Paul II appointed Fr. Jan Olszański bishop and ordinary of the recently-restored Diocese of Kamieniec-Podolski. Witnesses say that he did not want to be a bishop: “Four times the representatives of the Nunciature came to Manikowce and talked with him for almost four hours.” He did not want to be a bishop; after all, he considered himself unworthy of such a high position. He was ordained bishop at the age of seventy-two when most other people usually think about retirement. www.padrimariani.org/en/departed-2000-2005 The Pope entrusted to his care the faithful living in eight administrative districts in the southern part of Ukraine. The Kamieniec-Podolski Diocese was then, territorially speaking, exceptionally extensive. Before the division of 2002, it included the following oblasts: Vinnytsia, Khmelnytsky, Odessa, Zaporizhia, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Luhansk, Poltavsky, Mikolajowski, Kherson, Kirovograd and AR Krym. Thanks to his efforts, many pastoral centers and parishes were created, which later became the basis for the creation of two new dioceses. People said that he always prayed the rosary and that “always” should be taken literally. Those who traveled with Bishop Jan said: “When we were in the car, he prayed the rosary all the time, endlessly; once we had finished, we started up again “. As bishop, heestablished a major seminary in Gródek Podolski and reopened over 200 parishes. On May 4, 2002, Pope John Paul II, at the bishop’s own request, released him from his duties as diocesan ordinary. He performed his duties as bishop of the Kamieniec-Podolski Diocese for eleven years. On February 23, 2022, nineteen years will have passed since his death, the death of the first shepherd of the Kamieniec-Podolski Diocese after the restoration of the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church in Ukrawine. It is on this day, on the anniversary of his passing to the Lord, that the Church in Kamieniec will officially begin the beatification process of Bishop Jan Olszański, a priest of the Marian Fathers. Bishop Jan Olszańki, PRAY FOR US!
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