Blessed John (Ivan) Ziatyk was born in Poland in 1899 and was ordained a Catholic priest of the Greek rite. He entered the Redemptorist order in 1935 and became well known as a preacher.

During the Nazi occupation of Poland, John served as prior in a monastery. After World War II, he became Vicar General of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church—but primarily because all of his superiors had been arrested or expelled by the Communist government. In 1950, the facts that he continued to remain faithful to the Church and was a Redemptorist priest were sufficient to cause him to be arrested, imprisoned, and sentenced to a labor camp. While in a camp in Irkhutsk, Russia, he was beaten so badly that he died three days later; it was Easter Sunday, May 17, 1952.

Blessed John, help me to forgive with the heart of Christ.