Fr. Ignatius Maternowski was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts, USA on March 28, 1912, the son of Polish immigrants. He attended St. Francis High School in Hamburg, N.Y. where he was part of the school’s first championship basketball team. He graduated in 1931 and chose to pursue religious life with the Friars Minor Conventual (OFM Conv.) and was ordained a friar priest in 1938.
Following ordination, Fr. Maternowski served as a parish priest before his talents as a preacher were recognized and he was reassigned to minister at retreats and mission sites. Among the many places he ministered, he lived in Maryland at the site of a friary that is now part of the Shrine of St. Anthony (a ministry of Our Lady of the Angels Province, USA today).
Like St. Francis, the founder of the Franciscan Order (which encompasses the Friars Minor Conventual), Fr. Maternowski sought to bring the teachings of Jesus to others. And in July 1942, that meant leaving the comfort of his home to enlist as a member of the U.S. Army. He sought to be a missionary for the world.
Fr. Maternowski was first commissioned a first lieutenant in the Army Chaplain Corps and later volunteered for duty with paratroopers. He was trained as a combat paratrooper, completing all requirements to earn his wings prior to deployment overseas in 1943.
On the eve of the D-Day invasion, Fr. Maternowski celebrated Mass for his brothers in arms.
Friar James McCurry, OFM Conv., who helped found the Father Maternowski Remembrance Project, said of the army chaplain:
“Fr. Ignatius died to protect, not only his wounded fellow soldiers, but to safeguard all the innocent non-combatants of the area from the German reprisals. He died in defense of those principles – a martyr of love.
Even now, in a secular and pluralistic age, this Catholic, Franciscan, Army captain – a simple boy from the small town of Holyoke, Massachusetts – embodies the very highest aspirations of any branch of the human family. His commitment to the dignity of the human person was absolute.”