The event, open to the public and free of charge, took place in the theatre at the Dom Bosco Cultural Space in São José dos Campos, in the State of São Paulo, and was attended by hundreds of faithful and interested people. Noteworthy in particular, along with several civil authorities, was the presence of the Bishop of São José dos Campos, Bishop José Valmor Cesar Teixeira, SDB; the Superior of the Province of São Paulo, Brazil (BSP) Fr Alexandre Luís de Oliveira; his Vice-Provincial Fr Mauricio Tadeu Miranda; and the Secretary of the Vice-Postulation for Fr Rodolfo Komorek, Rômulo de Pádua Paula.
The programme began at 7.30 p.m. with a performance by the Mater Purissima Choir, which gave a special opening performance. The screening of the documentary began at 20:00, followed by a concluding moment of thanksgiving from the people involved in the initiative.
Fr Komorek’s life
The Venerable Fr Rodolfo Komorek was born on 11 August 1890 in Bielsko, Poland. He was a priest in the diocese of Wroclaw. During the 1914-18 war he was a military chaplain in hospitals and at the front. Taken prisoner in Trent by the Italians, he was able to mature in his vocation to religious life in the Salesian Congregation where he entered the novitiate in 1922. He aspired to be a missionary; in October 1924 he was sent to Brazil, not, however, among the natives as he would have wished, but for the pastoral care of Polish emigrants. He distinguished himself as an outstanding evangeliser and confessor. They called him ‘The Holy Father’ and said of him: ‘Never was a man seen to pray so much’.
He was involved in various Salesian parishes and communities. San José dos Campos was the last stop of his 25 years of mission, with no return to his homeland. He was happy to generously give God the breaths of his sick lungs to the last. He spent his last days in continuous prayer. He died at the age of 59.
The characteristic note of Fr Rodolfo Komorek is the radical way in which he strove for evangelical perfection. He was radical in his mortification of self, in his donation to the service of others, in the intense and uninterrupted fervour of prayer. Desirous of living the Gospel message in its entirety, he never admitted of half-measures, accommodation, reservation, compromise. On the contrary, when the moments became more critical, he did not loosen the evangelical grip of commitment, but resorted to even more arduous sacrifices.
About the documentary
Produced by the Mary Help of Christians Province,São Paulo, Brazil, with Nórea and co-produced by ‘f/Stop’, the work celebrates the centenary of the start of Fr Rodolfo Komorek's mission on Brazilian soil and presents its history, spirituality and relevance for the Church, together with the popular devotion that accompanies it.
The diocese of São José dos Campos, together with the parish of the Holy Family, where the Chapel of the Relics of the Venerable is located, granted official support for the realisation of the project, and the recordings took place between the second half of 2024 and the first half of 2025, and crossed the Brazilian states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul.
The documentary collects more than 15 unpublished testimonies concerning the Cause of Canonisation, collected during the expeditions.
Eduardo Freire
Source: Sao Paolo Province Brazil
