Jan Beyzym
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Stari Beizymy, Shepetivka, Russian Empire
Marana, Fianarantsoa, Madagascar
 | |
| Priest | |
| Born | 15 May 1850 Stari Beizymy, Shepetivka, Russian Empire |
| Died | 2 October 1912 (aged 62) Marana, Fianarantsoa, Madagascar |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Beatified | 18 August 2002, Błonie Park, Kraków, Poland by Pope John Paul II |
| Feast | 12 October |
| Attributes | Priest's cassock |
| Patronage | |
Jan Beyzym, (15 May 1850 – 2 October 1912) was a Jesuit priest of the Catholic Church in Poland.[1][2] He was a teacher in Jesuit boarding schools for a time after his ordination and later left Poland to work alongside lepers in Madagascar where he remained until his death.[3][4]
His beatification process started in 1985 and in 1992, he was titled as Venerable. On 18 August 2002 Pope John Paul II beatified him while in Poland .
Jan Beyzym was born in Stari Beizymy, Russian Empire (now Ukraine) on 15 May 1850 as the eldest of five children to Jan Beyzym and Olga. His father was a freedom fighter[citation needed] and in 1863 was sentenced to death in absentia for his activities.[1] He moved with his mother and siblings to Kiev and studied there from 1864 until 1871.[further explanation needed]
He completed his education in Kiev and on his father's advice joined the Jesuits. He was a novitiate from 10 December 1872 to 1874 at Stara Wies.[4] During his novitiate there was a cholera epidemic and he received the permission of his superior to go out into the streets to tend to the sick.[2] Beyzym received his ordination as a priest on 26 July 1881 in Kraków from Bishop Albin Dunajewski.[citation needed]
After his ordination he taught French and Russian until 1898 at Jesuit boarding schools in Tarnopol and Chyrów.[1] In 1898 he left to join the Jesuit missions to lepers near Tananariwa in Madagascar.[3] Beyzym left Poland on October 17, 1898 and arrived on 30 December at Red Island before being posted to Ambahivoraka near Antananarivo. In October 1902 he began to see the construction of a leper hospital at Marana and it was finished and inaugurated on 16 August 1911.[4][1]
Beyzym died on 2 October 1912 at the age of 62; his health declined and he had arteriosclerosis and sores simultaneously, which confined him to bed. His body exhumed and relocated back to his native Poland on 8 December 1993 at a Jesuit church.[1]
