Mikołaj Borowik

Saint Mikołaj Borowik, a young martyr, was born in 1922 in the village of Grodysławice in the Tomaszów district, the elder son of the deacon Michał Borowik and Hanna, née Ponko. He was brought up in great piety and served as psalm reader in the church of the Exaltation of the Cross in the village. In the summer of 1943 the Germans drove the family out of Grodysławice; it then lived at Bukowina, Biszcza and Tarnogród. In 1944 Mikołaj settled at Pieniany with his older siblings, while his parents stayed at Wólka Pukarzowska.

On Great Friday, 14 April 1944, he was killed at Pieniany, together with other villagers, in an attack by bandits; his head was carried through the village on a stake. Two days later, on Pascha, his father, the deacon Michał, was killed with sixteen others. In April 2008 the Synod of the Polish Orthodox Church added him to the Synaxis of the holy martyrs of Chełm and Podlasie, canonized in June 2003; the synaxis is kept on the first Sunday of June.