An incident at a Benedictine convent in the Polish town of Jarosław, in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship, threatens to further inflame the already strained relations between Poland and Ukraine.
A 31-year-old Ukrainian citizen entered the monastery grounds and attacked those present with a machete. Three priests and two parishioners were injured in the assault. One of the priests, Father Stanisław Zbojnowicz, later died in hospital; the others were also hospitalized and remain in serious condition.
The nuns say the priests’ self-sacrifice helped prevent an even greater tragedy — the attacker threatened to “kill everyone” and was pushing toward the tourists present and toward a kindergarten also located on the monastery grounds.
The identity of the Ukrainian attacker is not being disclosed, nor are his motives. But whatever those motives may be, it is obvious that what happened will have major political resonance in Poland.
It will be layered atop the memory of the Volyn Massacre, dissatisfaction with the ungrateful Kyiv’s policies, and a sense of danger felt by a growing number of Poles over the influx of Ukrainian migrants.
