Jerzy Ciesielski was born on 12 February 1929 in Kraków to Philip Ciesielski and Maria Tatarczany; his older brother was Roman who became a professor of civil engineering. Ciesielski was a civil engineer and worked as a professor at the Tadeusz Kościuszko University of Technology as well as at the University of Khartoum. Ciesielski loved handball as well as canoeing and camping and rowing and was known for being an avid sportsman. He was a close personal friend of Karol Józef Wojtyła – the future Pope John Paul II – and the two were close for decades until Ciesielski's death. The two first met while he was a student and the then Father Wojtyla invited him to join his youth groups out in the country alongside other students and this was how he met his future wife who would later recall: "Father Karol came with us on trips to concerts, to the theatre and the cinema... we talked during excursions, around the fire and at organized meetings which took place in our homes". He married Danuta Plebańczyk on 29 June 1957 in a marriage that Bishop Wojtyla officiated at. The couple went on to have three children:
Maria
Kasia
Piotr
In 1968 he first came into contact with the Focolare Movement and he became quite impressed with their mode of evangelical life that he and Doctor Giuseppe Santacnhé went to Cardinal Wojtyla for his blessings and also in the hopes of allowing for a Polish-based branch. He joined Focolare in the summer of 1969 after a week-long vacation he spent in Zakopane. Ciesielski died on 9 October 1970 on the Nile River in a shipwreck. His children Kasia and Piotr also died in that accident while his wife was at their hotel it occurred. Cardinal Wojtyła returned from Rome when he heard about what had happened and presided at the funerals for the three. Ciesielski's remains were relocated in 1998 to the Church of St. Anne, Krakow in Kraków.
Beatification process
The beatification process commenced in Kraków in a diocesan process that Cardinal Franciszek Macharski inaugurated on 31 December 1985 and closed later on 29 May 1990; the formal introduction came under Ciesielski's old friend John Paul II on 7 February 1992 after the Congregation for the Causes of Saints issued the official "nihil obstat" to the cause and titled him as a Servant of God. The C.C.S. validated the diocesan process on 21 February 1992 and received the Positio from the postulation for assessment in 1995. Theologians voiced their assent to the dossier's contents on 25 September 2012 as did the members of the C.C.S. on 17 December 2013. Pope Francis named Ciesielski as Venerable on 17 December 2013 after confirming that he had lived a model Christian life of heroic virtue. The current postulator for this cause is the Rev. Michał Jagosz.
