During the Soviet invasion of Estonia in 1940, Arch. Eduard Profittlich was arrested and sent to a prison in Kirov, Russia, where he died as a result of multiple tortures.
Editorial (08/16/2025 14:32, Gaudium Press) — Arch. Eduard Profittlich, a German archbishop whose martyrdom was officially recognized by Pope Francis on December 18, 2024, will be beatified on September 6 at 11:00 a.m. local time in Freedom Square in Tallinn, Estonia.
This was announced by the Polish Bishops’ Conference. The beatification ceremony will be presided over by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, the papal envoy of Pope Leo XIV. According to the Polish episcopate, after the Mass there will be a commemoration of all the victims of Soviet deportations.
Monsignor Profittlich refused to abandon Estonia, where he was evangelizing, and died a martyr in a Soviet prison in 1942. “The beatification of our martyr, Archbishop Eduard Profittlich, is a message of hope and optimism for all of Estonian society,” said Bishop Philippe Jourdan of Tallinn.
The Mass will be livestreamed at www.profittlich.eu
The beatification of Archbishop Profittlich will take place on the eve of the canonizations of Blesseds Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati, who will be declared saints by Pope Leo on Sunday, September 7, in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican.
Who was the martyr Eduard Profittlich?
Eduard Profittlich was a German Jesuit archbishop born on September 11, 1890, in the town of Birresdorf, in the Rhineland region of Germany. He was baptized on the same day.
According to the Jesuits’ official website, he entered the seminary in Trier in 1912, but after two semesters he left in 1913 to enter the Jesuit novitiate in the Netherlands, following the footsteps of his older brother Peter, a Jesuit missionary who died in Brazil.
He was ordained a priest in 1922, and later served in Germany and Poland. In 1930, he made his final vows as a Jesuit and was sent to Estonia, where he first served as apostolic administrator and later became archbishop.
When the Soviet Union occupied Estonia in 1940, religious freedom was severely restricted, and persecution of Catholic clergy intensified.
Although he had the opportunity to return to Germany, he chose to remain in Estonia, following the advice of Pope Pius XII. “Faithful to himself and to God, he chose to share the common fate of so many Estonians after the Soviet occupation,” the Polish bishops’ statement said.
He was arrested in June 1941 and forced to travel some 2,000 kilometers to the prison in Kirov, Russia. He was sentenced to death on November 21 of that year, after being tried “by a court based on fabricated charges of counter-revolutionary propaganda and anti-Soviet agitation, and of failing to report ‘counter-revolutionary activities,’” according to the Jesuits.
His appeal was rejected, and due to the many tortures he suffered in prison, Archbishop Profittlich died on February 22, 1942.
With information from ACI Prensa.
Related Images:
