priest of the parish of Saints Erasmus and Pancratius in Jelenia Góra in the years 1949-1972.
Dominik Kostial, a man of Borderlands descent, repressed during the time of the Polish People’s Republic, never ceased to be concerned for his fellow man. He remained in the memory of the faithful as a priest and a man with an extremely charismatic personality. For his steadfastness and integrity, he was counted as one of the Steadfast Clergy.
He was born on January 30, 1899 in Datynie Dolne [1] in Cieszyn Silesia. It was very important for his parents, Franciszek i Barbara, who made a living by farming, that their twelve children received education. Barbara Kostial (née Jureczek) was Czech. Seven older children graduated from the Czech school in Szenów, her native village. Dominik was the first of five siblings to graduate from primary school with Polish as the main language. In Ostrava he learned to work as a merchant, but the outbreak of World War I thwarted his family’s plans.
He served in the army of Emperor Franz Joseph I, as a subject from Galicia, in the so-called Landsturm. At the age of sixteen he was sent to the Italian front, where, in a state of extreme exhaustion, he was found and saved by his eldest brother Antoni [2]. In 1918, he volunteered for the Polish army, in the Polish-Ukrainian war in Eastern Lesser Poland, and two years later took part in the Polish-Bolshevik war under the command of General Żeligowski.
After Poland regained independence, he came to Lviv and while still in service, he graduated from high school in 1923. Immediately after graduating from high school, he entered the seminary, located in the buildings that formerly belonged to the Carmelite nuns. In 1926, he enrolled at the Uniwersytet Jana Kazimierza in Lviv. In 1931, he completed five-year studies in philosophy and theology, obtaining a discharge, and was ordained as a priest at the hands of the Metropolitan of Lviv, Fr. Archbishop Bolesław Twardowski.
In the first years (1931-1938) of his pastoral ministry, he worked as a vicar of Buczacz parish, he managed the Byczkowce and Petlikowce Nowe parishes. He proved to be an efficient administrator; he finished the construction of the church, bought its furnishings, built a brick presbytery and a farm building. These achievements would not have been possible without the help of parishioners who trusted their priest completely and they offered to collect money themselves, e.g. for the construction of pipe organs in Byczkowce. The sick and the poor could always count on his help. Years later, he mentioned that his greatest achievement, thanks to God’s grace, was restoration to the bosom of the Catholic Church of non-believers from the Polish-national church called “faraonowcy”. Even then, the strength of charisma of Fr. Kostial was noticeable, and it would stay with him to his death. In recognition of his achievements in pastoral work, in 1935 he was awarded the title of a canon. At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the movement of the lay apostolate, known as Catholic Action, developed in Italy; in Poland, it has been operating since 1926, especially vigorously in the Archdiocese of Lviv, where Ukrainian nationalist organizations, hostile to the Polish population and Catholics, were gaining traction. Fr. Kostial was actively involved in promotion of Christian values in social life by establishing Catholic Associations: for Female Youth, for Male Youth, for Women and an Altar Boys club.
His hard work was noticed by Fr. Archbishop Bolesław Twardowski, who in 1938 transferred Fr. Kostial to one of the poorest districts of Lviv - the parish of Our Lady of the Rosary at Warszawska Street in Kleparów. The plans to build a new temple were interrupted by World War II. With the help of another priest, Emil Kałuski, he ran a kitchen for the poor and homeless, feeding up to 200 people. From the parish adjacent to the Lviv ghetto, risking his life, he gave food to the Jewish population and, if necessary, offered them shelter.
On June 6, 1946, he left Lviv and came to Wrocław. By decision of mitered prelate, Fr. Karol Milik, he took over the parish of St. Henry. Due to the lack of priests, he also served (until mid-1947) in the parish of the Holy Spirit in Tarnogaj. Fr. Kostial, with his signature energy, began to rebuild temples and parish buildings ruined by warfare, and to organize a ministry. He helped the settlers coming from different regions find themselves in the new reality [3]. The stay in Wrocław also meant that Fr. Dominik worked hard with young people: he taught religion in primary and secondary schools, he was the prefect of the Państwowe Liceum Pedagogiczne and Szkoła Ćwiczeń.
Perhaps the pioneering experience gained in multicultural post-war Wrocław, as well as outstanding character traits, and above all his skill at consolidation of non-integrated communities, meant that in mid-January of 1949, as a catechist and substitute vicar, he was assigned by the church authorities to work in Jelenia Góra. After receiving a formal appointment as parish priest and dean, on February 14, 1949, he took over the parish of St. Erasmus and Pankracy.
In the first post-war years, Jelenia Góry was, like Wrocław, a concentration of people of various origins; they came from all over Poland, they needed material help and spiritual support. At the time, the city had a population of around 40000 residents and the parish of Fr. Kostial was the only one. Those were hard years for the parish priest and four curates who looked after Jeżów Sudecki, Dąbrowica, Raszyce, branch churches and parishes. In addition to the usual church duties, helping the poorest, each of the clergy had 40 hours of religious classes during the week, which were still held in schools.
The turn of 1948/49 was an increasingly difficult situation for priests in Poland. Subsequent moves and declarations by the government left no illusion that the Church was facing perhaps the most difficult test yet. It was no different in Jelenia Góra. The Powiatowy Urząd Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego (Poviat Public Security Office) began activities aimed at disintegrating and figuring out the clergy. All priests had their record folders. D. Kostial was also in the spotlight. His critical attitude to many propaganda campaigns was noted - incl. to the congress of “priests-patriots“, to the promotion of collectivization of agriculture, or to the enterprise called Plebiscyt Pokoju (Peace Plebiscite). His pastoral work with young people caused anxiety. The ongoing investigation was supposed to link him with the youth organization of the Polish Underground Independence Army, and when it failed, he was arrested in 1950 on charges of maintaining contact with Orlęce Oddziały Bojowe (Eaglet’s Combat Unit) - a secret youth organization founded in 1949 by Antoni Chyliński. Its members (a dozen or so students from schools in Jelenia Góra) dealt with self-education, and in the leaflets they distributed expressed their opposition to the state’s policy. After their exposure and show trials, they were sentenced to long sentences [4]. Despite the persistent interrogations, insults and harassment, Fr. Kostial did not hand over his students; after three months in prison and a trial, he was released, but the surveillance by security authorities continued.
A year later, on March 22, 1951, he was arrested again. The governor of the Archdiocese of Wrocław, Fr. Kazimierz Lagosz interceded on his behalf, in a letter addressed to Minister Antoni Bida, director of the Office of Religious Affairs in Warsaw. However, the Security Service continued its pressure to recall Fr. Kostial from Jelenia Góra. It was recognized that he was particularly dangerous, showed a reactionary attitude and had an implacable attitude to social actions. In his place, Fr. Jan Piskorz was appointed. In November 1952, Fr. Dominik resigned and received a decree ordering him to leave Jelenia Góra. The situation was relatively normalized in 1953, although in the beginning attempts were made to appoint Fr. Adam Łańcut who did not accept this nomination. Fr. Kostial remained in the parish, having taken the legally required oath in the Wojewódzka Rada Narodowa, which enabled him to continue his pastoral work.
The year 1957 brought him a position of a prelate and new duties - that of inspector of religion in schools in Jelenia Góra. When it was removed from schools in 1961, Fr. Kostial allocated the parish house at Copernicus street for catechistic purposes, equipping it with tools necessary for learning. He did not succumb to further pressures, meant to force him to draw up lists of students participating in religion lessons and to register catechetical points.
Church of Saints Erasmus and Pankracy owes to Fr. Kostial its new decor, three new bells and a sound system. Masses conducted by him gathered the faithful in countless numbers. He radiated cordality, love for his fellow man, sensitivity to human misery, poverty and weaknesses - features particularly important in relations with displaced people. Their integration was also helped along by his knowledge of foreign languages. Fr. Kostial was a polyglot. He learned the Czech language in his native village, and thanks to his studies he was fluent in German and French. The latter turned out to be particularly important with repatriates from France.
From 1970 he struggled with serious disease. In 1972 he was dismissed from the function of the dean of Jelenia Góra and was appointed Honorary Dean, in 1974 he ceased to hold the position of parish priest; retired, he remained as a resident in Jelenia Góra.
Prelate Dominik Kostial died on July 17, 1974. The funeral procession was led by Bishop Wincenty Urban from Wrocław, assisted by Fr. Stanisław Turkowski and numerous priests from the entire diocenese. The parishioners carried the coffin on their shoulders from the church to the cemetery on Sudecka Street. In 2012, the City Council in Jelenia Góra, in recognition of his merits, named one of the streets in the city center named after Fr. Kostial.