Their story may not be familiar to you, but let’s change that.
They are a great example of unity, faith, solidarity, and hope by choice!Honor the Ulma family on July 7th.
Parents, Jozef and Wiktoria Ulma, and their seven children (including their unborn child) were beatified on Sept. 10, 2023. Their feast day is July 7th, the wedding anniversary of the courageous Polish Catholic couple.
Not yet recognized as saint, this is the only time in the history of the Church that an entire family was beatified at a single celebration, and the first time an unborn child was.
The family – including the unborn child Wiktoria was carrying and in her seventh month, was executed on March 24, 1944, by Nazi soldiers.
Nazi forces stormed the Ulma home. They first murdered the parents in front of the children. Then in ugly hatred killed each child – Stanislawa, Barbara, Wladyslaw, Franciszek, Antoni, and Maria – before going up to the attic to execute two families the Ulma’s were sheltering from Hitler’s terror – the Szall family of six and two Jewish girls – Golda and Layka Didner dauthers of Chaim Goldman. The Ulma’s were protecting and housing them all for nearly two years.
Vatican records note that written inside the family’s Bible was the word “Samaritan” underlined, and “yes,” illustrating their commitment to God to love thy neighbor.
Upon the announcement of their beatification in 2023, Vatican News noted Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, likened this exceptional case to a “Baptism of Blood,” echoing the tragic narrative of the Holy Innocents. In their entirety, the Ulma family’s legacy underscores the power of love, compassion, and sacrifice amid the darkest of times.
