Roman Catholic Cardinal. Born in the small village of Zuzela in present day Poland, which back then formed part of the Russian Empire, Stefan Wyszyński remains one of the most renowned religious leaders and statesmen in Eastern Europe during the Communist bloc. Receiving his education at the Pius X Lyceum, the seminaries of Wloclaweck, and at the University of Lublin, from where he obtained his doctorate in canon law, Wyszyński was ordained priest in August 1924. Named vicar at Przedcz in 1930, he was assigned to numerous offices in Wloclawek, including those of cathedral vicar, secretary of the Pius X lyceum, director of the diocesan missions office and member of the seminary teaching staff. Between 1931 and 1939, he gave light to 106 publications focusing on the subjects of on the economic cataclysm, unemployment and social Justice. Director of the "Atenaeum Kaplanskie" journal from 1932 until 1939, Wyszynski served furthermore as justice promoter and defender of the matrimonial bond at the diocesan curia and head of the Christian Worker's University. Active in christian trade unions since 1932, he organized the Catholic Union of Young Workers and labored within the Marian society of landowners and the primate's social council. Appointed judge of the episcopal tribunal in 1938, he performed clandestine pastoral work during the Second World War and was briefly arrested by the Gestapo in October 1941. Moving to Zulow the following month, in June of the following year he was appointed chaplain of the Laski Institute for the Blind. Appointed bishop of the diocese of Lublin in 1946, he received his episcopal consecration on May 12 of that year in Jasna Góra. Promoted to the metropolitan see of Gniezno, with the see of Warsaw united "ad personam" on November 12, 1948, he was imprisoned by the Communist regime between 1953 and October 26, 1956, at Grudziądz, and later placed under house arrest in the monastery in Prudnik near Opole and in Komańcza, in the Bieszczady mountains. Pope John XXIII created him cardinal priest in the consistory of January 12, 1953, however he was impeded from attending the named consistory by the Communists. He ultimately received the red hat and the title of Santa Maria in Trastevere on May 18, 1957. Often called the "Primate of the Millennium", the Cardinal was a staunch warrior for the faith who at the helm of the Catholic Church in Poland as primate for over three decades was indefatigable combatant of Communism, guiding the Church through periods of persecution through which he emerged as a national hero. Wyszyński died of abdominal cancer and was buried inside the metropolitan cathedral of Warsaw following the celebration of a funeral which saw the participation of over half a million people. Three days before his death, he had a telephone conversation with Pope John Paul II, who was undergoing treatment in Rome after an assassination attempt on his life. His cause of beatification was introduced in 1989 while a "Year of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński" was celebrated in 2001. Several areas and edifices across Poland and other countries carry his name.