Paul (Shvayk)

Holy Hieromartyr Paul (Shvayk) was a priest in the Chełm region of Poland who received the crown of martyrdom in 1943, together with his wife, Presbytera Joanna. The Orthodox Church of Poland and the Russian Church honour them as holy martyrs.

During the Second World War armed groups attacked Orthodox villagers by night in eastern Poland; according to one account, more than a thousand Orthodox were killed. Father Paul and Joanna lived in the village of Grabowiec, in the Chełm and Podlasie region, and were killed in 1943.

On 8 June 2003 the Synod of the Orthodox Church of Poland numbered seven clerics among the saints, among them the priest Paul Szwajko, as well as Presbytera Joanna Szwajko and all who suffered for the faith with them. The Russian Church includes them in the synaxes of the saints of Volhynia and of Galicia. The Greek synaxarion commemorates them, with the other martyrs of Poland, on the Sunday between 1 and 7 June.