RIP: 27/07/2021 - Hammond
Fr. Józef Zuziak was born on 17 January 1934 in Lipowa near Zywiec. In 1949 he finished primary school, and in 1953, after graduating from the general school in Zywiec, he passed his baccalaureate exam and applied for admission to the Society of the Divine Saviour. After almost a year of novitiate formation, he decided to take a break and began studies at the Faculty of Surveying and Land Improvement at the Cracow Agricultural University. His education was interrupted by a call to military service in a topographic unit in Komorów. He finished his service in the autumn of 1958. On July 12, 1959, he sent a humble request to the Salvatorian Provincial Superior for re-admission to the Society as a candidate for the priesthood. In August 1959, he entered the novitiate in Bagno and exactly one year later, on 15 August 1960 he professed his first vows. After having finished his Philosophical and Theological studies, he was ordained a priest by Bishop Karol Wojtyla on 28 June 1966 in Trzebinia. Originally, he wanted to work as a missionary in Africa, but after a certain time of preparation, he was sent to the United States, where he took up pastoral ministry among the Polish community and settled in Merrillville, Indiana. Almost from the beginning of his stay his superiors entrusted him with the responsibility for the community in Merrillville as bursar and superior. Among many initiatives, it is worthwhile to emphasize the construction of the church, which today is a Marian sanctuary and the organization of the Polish Marian Pilgrimage from Chicago to Merrillville, which still attracts thousands of pilgrims. On 19 May 2018, President Andrzej Duda decorated him for this with the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland. As an honorary chaplain of the Polish Highlanders, he was decorated with the Highland Order and awarded the “Ambassador of the Year” distinction at the Polish Heritage Festival in Michigan. An inseparable attribute of Fr. Józef was a harmonica on which he played religious and other well-known melodies. Even John Paul II listened to his playing. Fr. Józef Zuziak died after a serious illness on 27 July 2021 at the Albertine Sisters Nursing Home in Hammond.
