Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - As part of the beatification process for the German-born Jesuit missionary and titular archbishop of Hadrianopolis, Eduard Profittlich, who died in 1942 in the Soviet detention camp in Kirov, Pope Francis recognized his death on February 22, 1942, as martyrdom "ex aerumnis carceris", i.e. for the sufferings of prison", thus fulfilling the last requirement for beatification.
Eduard Profittlich was born on September 11, 1890 in Birresdorf (Germany) to a farming family and grew up in a large family. He first entered the seminary in Trier in 1912, but was attracted by the spirituality of the Society of Jesus, he was eventually accepted into the Jesuit novitiate in Heerenberg in Holland. A few years later, his older brother Peter died as a missionary in Brazil.
At the outbreak of the First World War, he was called back into the German army and assigned to the medical service. After the war, he resumed his studies in philosophy and theology and was ordained a priest on August 27, 1922. After receiving his doctorate in philosophy and theology from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, he was sent to Estonia, where he was entrusted with pastoral care of the parish of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Tallinn.
On May 11, 1931, Pius XI appointed him Apostolic Administrator of Estonia. In his pastoral work, he endeavored to rebuild the then small Estonian Catholic community. He drew up a pastoral plan, improved the education of the local clergy, established new parishes and invited priests and religious men and women from Poland and Czechoslovakia to carry out evangelization work in Estonia. In November 1936, Pius XI appointed him archbishop and gave him the titular see of Hadrianopolis.
When the Soviets invaded Estonia in June 1940, almost all the priests were arrested. He, who could have returned home, preferred to stay in Estonia with his believers. On June 27, 1941, he was arrested and deported to Kirpov in Russia on charges of anti-Soviet agitation and supporting Catholic clergy abroad. In the camp he was tortured several times, after which he declared that his only task was the religious education of the believers entrusted to him. Sentenced to death, he died of the sufferings of imprisonment before the sentence was carried out on February 22, 1942.
The records of the interrogations to which he was subjected clearly show his faith. His martyrdom only became known many years after his tragic death, following the collapse of the Soviet regime. On January 30, 2002, the Bishops' Conference of the Russian Federation initiated the beatification. On May 30, 2003, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints issued the "nihil obstat" under the title "Causa Beatificationis seu Declarationis Martyrii Servorum Dei Eduardi Profittlich Archiepiscopi titularis Hadrianopolitani in Haemimonto Administratoris Apostolici Estoniensis, ex Societate Iesu et XV Sociorum". The ecclesiastical process was solemnly opened in St. Petersburg. (F.B.) (Agenzia Fides, 18/12/2024)