User:Stebunik/Grozde Lojze

thumb|right|200px|Lojze Grozde, cutting from title of book „Lojze Grozde, Slovenian Martyr”

Lojze Grozde (born as Lojze Alojzij Grozde), Slovenian poet and martyr, * 27th May 1923, Zgornje Vodale, † 1st January 1943, Mirna.

Biography of Lojze Grozde
Lojze Grozde – Slovenian poet and martyr, was born on May 27, 1923 in village Zgornje Vodale, Tržišče near Mokronog  in Dolenjsko. He was an illegitimate child. When he was four years old, his mother got married. His stepfather chased him away each time he wanted to see his mother. Later, as Lojze was a good pupil, the stepfather became friendlier to him. So he remained at the house and his aunt took care of him. She saw to his schooling and sent him to a school in Ljubljana where she worked as a servant. Some benefactors helped her to sustain her nephew. He was staying at a boarding school Marijanišče and attended classical gymnasium   in Ljubljana. Here he was an outstanding student and a literary creator among his fellow students. He was a member of the [Catholic Action] and of [Marian Congregation]. Towards the end of his high schooling the World War II was approaching. Circumstances were becoming more and more strained. It was also the time when Lojze had to make the decision about his profession. He was searching for his way of life in the profound life of prayer and working for others.

Martyrdom, find and burial
During his holidays in the school year before last he did not go home as there was a lot of violence and it was not easy to travel. It was only at the New Year of 1943 that he decided to visit his relatives. He asked for a permit to travel home. First he visited a friend of his at village Struge. On January 1, 1943, the first Friday, he attended holy mass at monastery at Stična and travelled by train from Ivančna gorica to Trebnje, where he found he could not travel on as the rails were cut off. He decided to go to Mirna on foot and during the way he took a seat on one cart. At the fist house at Mirna he had to step down the cart, becouse a partisan watch seized and interrogated him. By hi they found missal, Following of Christ by Thomas a Kempis and a booklet on Our Lady of Fatima. He was taken to a nearby inn and interrogated. The critical state of the moment reveals the fact that three hours earlier a He was taken to a nearby inn and interrogated. The critical state of the moment reveals the fact that three hours earlier a Janez  Hočevar, who wanted to visit his relatives at the nearby Šentrupert, was shot. Lojze Grozde was suspected of being a war informant; in him communists saw one young man with a mentality that they depreciated and persecuted. Soon rumours spread about cruelty of celebrating New Year by the partisan Tone Tomšič, that had conquered Mirna. Someones today otherwise maintain, that it was nothing torture. But about the torture speaks already first short biografical summary. On February 23, 1943, the fate of the student Lojze Grozde was partly revealed. He was tortured in the middle of the night at Mirna. Schoolchildren were picking snowdrops when they found his corpse. There were traces of torture on his body, the corpse itself, however, was unmolded. He was taken to the nearby Šentrupert, where a commission drew up the minutes. The body of Lojze Grozde was buried at the cemetery at Šentrupert, as it was impossible to take it to his home parish of Tržišče under too difficult circumstances of that days. The news of the violent torture and death of the innocent student arose fear among people and shocked the students in Ljubljana.

Beatification
At 50th anniversary of the death of Lojze Grozde the archdiocese of Ljubljana started a process to recognize his martyrdom and also for his beatification and canonization. (Palme mučeništva: The killed and murdered Slovenian priests, religious and seminarians and some Catholic lay people.) When pope John Paul II visited Slovenia for 1st time in 1996, he mentioned Lojze Grozde twice. He said, 'The servant of God Lojze Grozde is just one of innumerable innocent victims of Communism that raise the palm of martyrdom as an indelible memory and admonition. He was a disciple of Christ.' And Pope Benedict XVI said that saints are not the past but they represent the present and the future of the Church and society. They fully realized love in truth, which is the highest value in Christian life; their figures are like prisms that in various casts reflect the unique light, Christ. On March 27, 2010 the news came from Rome that the pope affirmed the decreee on martyrdom of Lojze Grozde. Thus a solemn beatification is allowed that will take place at Slovenian eucharistic congress in Celje on June 13, 2010. In his introduction to the biography of Lojze Grozde by Anton Strle, who is also a candidate for sainthood, Taras Kermauner wrote, 'Grozde combines ardour and apostolate of Friderik Baraga, asceticism and suffering of Janez Frančišek Gnidovec, a gift to organize and Slovenian national feeling of Blessed Anton Martin Slomšek ... He symbolizes the entire martyrdom suffered by Christian and Catholic Slovenians during World War II and afterwards for their affiliation to thier faith ... His personality should be returned to commmon Slovenian consciousness of heroes that have been praised and elevated to the first plan as the only models. Today such a man like Grozde is needed as our model – a martyr, a saint. Not a man of aggressive military action thinking he will put forward God with arms and blood of OTHER/ALIEN people ... I do not fear to write that Grozde belongs among the greatest young Slovenians; that his attitude is competent and of most precious contents.'