Monsignor Konstanty Budkiewicz, murdered by the Bolsheviks on March 31, 1923; size : 8.5 x 12.5 cm
Konstanty Romuald Budkiewicz (1867–1923) – a Polish Roman Catholic clergyman, prelate, longtime pastor of St. Catherine of Alexandria Parish in St. Petersburg, and a social and national activist, murdered by the Soviet political police, the GPU. He was born in Zubry near Daugavpils. He studied at a seminary and at the Theological Academy in St. Petersburg, where he earned a degree in theology. He was ordained a priest in 1893. From 1904, he served as pastor of St. Catherine’s Parish in St. Petersburg. He was involved in the development of Polish education, as well as charitable and educational activities; he was also a member of the National League and the “Sokół Polski” society. During World War I, he was active in the Polish Society for Aid to War Victims, and in 1917 he headed the Polish Citizens’ Committee, which provided assistance to Poles residing in Russia. After Poland regained its independence, he remained in Russia to provide pastoral care to the local Polish population. Beginning in 1922, he taught at a clandestine seminary in St. Petersburg. In March 1923, along with Archbishop Jan Cieplak and other clergymen, he was brought before the Soviet Supreme Revolutionary Tribunal in a high-profile show trial. Sentenced to death, he was not pardoned despite international diplomatic interventions. On March 31, 1923, he was murdered with a shot to the back of the head in Lubyanka Prison in Moscow.
