About Foundation

council member

Maria has been Tyniec’s lay Oblate since 2013. She is the author of a book-interview with Fr. Włodzimierz Zatorski, entitled “Po obu stronach rzeki” (On Both Sides of the River),  a book compilation of memories of Poland’s Martial Law in the 1980s , entitled “Przyszli po mnie” (They Came For Me), and several small volumes of verse, including “ Misterium Tyńca” (The Mystery of Tyniec). She is a graduate in Polish Language and Literature. She has been manager of the company board office and PR manager in a large international firm, director of the promotion and culture department of the municipal office, and is currently owner of the Promotion 63 company. She is the mother of two, and owner of a Black Labrador.

council member

A search, over many years, for harmony in life allowed her to discover the Benedictine identity which she had been blindly seeking and feeling. This came about at a providential time, when Fr. Włodzimierz Zatorski began coming, with books published by the Tyniec Benedictines, to the aMBasador Bookshop which she had established and was running in Olsztyn. Since 1999 she has been organizing public meetings with the Tyniec monk, as well as Benedictine Focus Days. Previously she worked as a decorator in the “Dom Książki” Bookshop and in the Rural Planning Office. Since 2009 she has been Tyniec’s lay Oblate. She is the mother of two, and grandmother of six.

Lidia Ujazdowska

founder and council member

She has always been convinced that the key to oneself is someone else. The perspective from which they see reality may be revealing. Professionally she conducts conversations in connection with oral history. She has published a book entitled “The Massacre of Ochota” (Zagłada Ochoty) on the basis of accounts by the inhabitants of Warsaw’s Ochota district. In recent years she has been engaged in activity within the framework of her own cultural foundation. She treats participation in the Foundation as an opportunity to use her experience, with the hope of further human encounters. She has three children.

Rev. Dr. Przemysław Ludwiczak

founder

A graduate in Economics from Warsaw University and in  Theology from the Papal Theology Faculty. Since 2014 he has been parish priest of St. Maksymilian Kolbe’s Church in Józefów. He is a member of the Economic Affairs Council of the Warsaw-Praga Diocese, and a former director of the “Arka” (The Ark) Diocesan Academic Pastoral Care Centre in Warsaw.

Krystyna Fuerst

council member

Connected with Krakow’s Tyniec Abbey since 2008, she is now a member of its lay Oblates community. She holds a Master’s degree in special education, with reference to resocialisation. Her professional life has been devoted to young people with social adjustment issues, and right up to now she has been helping those in the broadly understood situation of life crisis. She is happy to join The Benedict Option, since activity directed towards helping one’s fellow-being can be linked with prayer and faith “so that God be worshipped in everything” (Rule of St. Benedict, 57, 9). She is the happy mother and grandmother of four.

Wojciech Kosiewicz

board member

Wojciech holds two master’s degrees from Warmia and Mazury University in Olsztyn: Politics and Theology. In the Theology Faculty, he wrote his MA dissertation on: “The role of work in young people’s upbringing in relation to the Rule of St. Benedict of Nursia”. For over two decades Wojciech has been living his spiritual life based on the teachings of St. Benedict and has been connected with the Benedictus Community of Olsztyn. For 10 years, he was a local newspaper journalist at the Gazeta Olsztyńska. Currently, he serves as a catechist in the town of Gietrzwald. Wojciech is married with three sons.

Fr. Włodzimierz Zatorski OSB

spiritual director and council member

Fr. Zatorski is a Benedictine monk from the abbey in Krakow’s Tyniec and a Physics graduate from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. In 1984 he made his solemn voe, being ordained as a priest in 1987. For many years Fr. Zatorski was a director of the Benedictine Publishing House of Tyniec. He has been authored many books himself. Fr. Zatorski has held a number of positions in the monastery, including abbot, novice master and bursar. He also ensured pastoral care for Abbey’s affiliated lay Oblates. He now runs workshops on spiritual growth and continues writing.

Alicja Kulik

founder and board member

Graduate in English Philology from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan. Since 2000 she has been serving as a reporter and social journalist at the regional broadcasting centre of Polish Radio in Olsztyn. Her work is primarily to listen to people who want to share their stories with her. She’s also a lay Oblate at a Benedictine monastery in Krakow’s Tyniec. Alicja believes her radio work, an Oblate mission, and now co-founding the foundation are what makes her happy, rich and grateful.