Józef Wrycza

Józef Wrycza (February 4, 1884 – December 4, 1961) was a Roman Catholic priest, social activist, and military chaplain. He was born in what is now Zblewo, Poland to Franciszek and Franciszka (Trocha) Wryca, who were of Kashubian nationality. From 1894 to 1899 he attended the Collegium Marianum at Pelplin. He began his high school education at Chełmno and completed it in 1904 at the Collegium Leoninum at Wejherowo, where one of his classmates was the future German SS general Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski. Later that year he began studies at the Pelplin Higher Seminary (Wyższe Seminarium Duchowne w Pelplinie) and, on February 23, 1908, he was ordained a Roman Catholic priest.

Wrycza served a number of parishes between his ordination and the beginning of the First World War, and remained a fully committed Roman Catholic priest until his death. He also spent his life as an activist, however, for the Kashubian and later the Polish causes. In 1909 he was one of the founding members of the Society of Young Kashubians along with Aleksander Majkowski, Jan Karnowski, and Leon Heyke. Drafted into the German Army in 1914, he served for two years as a medic before returning in 1916 to his priestly duties. In 1917 he founded the Society of Polish Youth, an organization devoted to taking control of Poland by armed struggle, and nearly escaped execution by the German "Grenzschutz Ost" in 1919 as a member of the Military Organization "Pomerania."

Wrycza's social activism continued during the Second Polish Republic. He served as a chaplain in the Blue Army of General Józef Haller throughout the Polish–Soviet War, taking time out to celebrate Mass at Poland's Wedding to the Sea, at which event he also commemorated Kashubian contributions to Poland's fishing industry. His active military career ended when he transferred to the Polish Army Reserve in 1924. Serving as pastor in the church at Wiele from 1924 to 1939, he helped complete the Kalwaria Wielewska ("Wiele Calvary"), a set of Stations of the Cross created in the hills around Wiele, intended to commemorate Poles who fell in the World War. He was also involved in a wide range of political activities, most notably as a member of the conservative National Party. In this role he often found himself at odds with the Józef Piłsudski regime, and was even jailed for a while in 1935. He also found time to promote the Kashubian language and culture, including a 1935 edition of Hieronim Derdowski's 1884 poem Jasiek na Knieji ("Johnny from the Forest").

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