Born Joseph Guz in 1890 in Poland, he was turned down when he tried to enter the Jesuit order, but the Franciscans accepted him. He took the name of Innocent in religious life and was ordained a priest.

Blessed Innocent became a collaborator with the future saint Maximilian Kolbe, serving as a confessor to the priests at one of Kolbe’ s monasteries. When Russians troops invaded Poland, Innocent was arrested for being a priest, though he somehow managed to escape; when German troops invaded shortly afterward, he was arrested again for the same reason. He was imprisoned in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and working at forced labor when he was beaten and injured so badly he could no longer work. The Nazis executed him on this date in 1940.

Blessed Innocent, help me to forgive.