Eduard Profittlich

Profittlich was born of a peasant farmer's couple: Markus Profittlich (1846-1920) and Dorothea Seiwert (1850-1913), the eighth of ten children, on 11 September 1890 in Birresdorf, German Empire.

After finishing the elementary school in Leimersdorf, he was prepared in 1904 by a local parish priest to take up further education in Ahrweiler. From there, he moved to the school in Linz am Rhein at Easter 1909, graduating here from high school in 1912 and receiving a secondary school certificate and attended the seminary of Trier. His parents wanted him to become a diocesan priest to help them in emergency situations, but on 11 April 1913 he entered the Society of Jesus in 's-Heerenberg, Netherlands, where the German Jesuits settled as a result of their expulsion caused by the politics of the Kulturkampf of Bismarck. His older brother Peter (1878-1915) died as a missionary in Brazil. and Profittlich also wanted to become a Catholic priest. Eduard continued his studies in exile at the scholasticate of Valkenburg aan de Geul, Netherlands, after 20 September 1914.

During the First World War he served as a nurse and surgical assistant from 1916 to 1918 in the Imperial Army. On 4 January 1916, Profittlich finally received the tonsure and consecration to subdeacon, in the Cathedral of Trier by Heinrich Döring, SJ, (1859-1951), bishop of Poona,

Eduard Profittlich resumed his philosophical and theological studies in Valkenburg after the war and was there ordained deacon on 26 March 1922 by the Archbishop of Cologne Cardinal Karl Joseph Schulte (1871-1941). On 27 August 1922 Profittlich was ordained priest by Lorenz Schrijnen, bishop of Roermond, and on 30 August 1922 celebrated in his home parish church of St. Stephen in Leimersdorf his first Mass.

Profittlich entered the new Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome, founded in 1917 by Pope Benedict XV, with the intention of preparing for clandestine missionary work in Russia. In 1923 he became a doctor in philosophy and in 1924 doctor in theology at the Jagiellonian University of Kraków.[1] From September 1924 to June 1925 he was a missionary in Czechowice-Dziedzice, Poland, and from August 1925 to Match 1928 in Opole, a German city with many Poles; from 9 March 1928 to 1930 he was parish priest in the Polish parish of Saint Ansgar in Hamburg, and after 11 December 1930 parish priest at St Peter and St Paul in Tallinn, appointed by the apostolic administrator of Estonia, Archbishop Antonio Zecchini, SJ, after his profession of perpetual vows on 2 February 1930.

On 11 May 1931 Profittlich was appointed Apostolic Administrator of largely Polish Estonia, due to his good knowledge of Polish and Polish affairs.

On 28 September 1933, Pope Pius XI appointed him in exchange for his services as a protonotary apostolic in a private audience at the Vatican.

The problems of the Catholic Church in Estonia were the small number of believers, their multilingualism and dispersion. As new administrator he quickly developed a pastoral plan. His sermons were particularly popular, attracting also those of other faiths.

He began publishing the country's first church weekly magazine Kiriku Elu (The Life of the Church), which was read especially by the Estonian intelligentsia. The number of the faithful grew steadily and new parishes were established in: Narva, Pärnu, Rakvere, Petseri, Valga and Kiviõli. In 1934, they were supported by ten Catholic priests and Polish and Czech religious sisters. He gave special emphasis to the religious upbringing of the youth, in four schools and published in seven languages.

Profittlich was a recognized preacher and a bishop. He began to address the issue of Estonian-language literature on the subject of religion. He tried to change the image of the Catholic Church as a "Polish church", and be more open and closer to Estonians. In 1935, he requested and received Estonian citizenship.[2]

After the signing of the treaty between the Vatican and Estonia in 1935, under which the legal status of the apostolic administration in Estonia was confirmed, on 27 November 1936 he was named titular archbishop of Adrianople and on 27 December 1936 consecrated archbishop at the parish church of St Peter and St Paul in Tallinn, while remaining an apostolic administrator. Profittlich was the first Catholic bishop in Estonia after the passage of Estonian territories to Sweden in the 17th century.

With the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, he remained in Tallinn even after the Soviet occupation of Estonia in June 1940, and went to the German embassy in Tallinn three times to obtain exit visas for certain Catholic priests and sisters and Baltic Germans imprisoned by the Soviets. However, the church's situation had deteriorated, with priest and faithful persecuted by the communists. He described the whole situation in a letter to the Pope. At that time, the German embassy in Tallinn insisted that he take German citizenship again and renounce his Estonian citizenship, but he refused.

On 27 June 1941, a few days after the Third Reich attack on the USSR, Profittlich was arrested by eight NKVD agents and transferred to prison in Kirov, Russia, for anti-Soviet agitation and assistance to Catholic ecclesiastics abroad. He was repeatedly interrogated and on 14 October 1941 a bill of indictment was prepared in Kirov, in which he was accused of carrying out anti-Soviet agitation by using the religious feelings of the masses to incite hatred for the USSR and the Communist Party. In addition, he was accused of espionage in favor of the Third Reich, proven by his visit to the embassy in Tallinn. After the next interrogations, on 17 October 17, he was confronted with further evidence of anti-Soviet talks with his fellow prisoner. He always maintained his innocence.

The trial began on 25 October 1941, and he was found guilty. His appeal to the Supreme Court of the USSR was rejected. He was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment and work in the labor camp in Kirov, but on 21 November of the same year he was sentenced to death by shooting, for anti-Soviet activities and espionage for Germany. On 22 February 1942 he died in Kirov prison before the sentence was executed.

Bishop Profittlich was ready to accept the martyrdom for the faith. In a letter to relatives and acquaintances on 8 February 1941, he wrote that the shepherd's place is with the flock where he shares the joy and suffering. He wrote that it is a great pleasure to experience the presence of God to whom we have given everything and that he is ready to give God his life for all: "My life – and, if necessary, my death – is life and death for Christ."

For 50 years after his arrest the future of the Archbishop was unknown. It was suspected that he was imprisoned in Ufa and later in Kazan. Even searching for members of his family did not bring anything new to the matter. A breakthrough came on 30 March 1990, when Estonia regained its independence. On 12 June 1990 the Supreme Court informed the Catholic Church about the fate of the Archbishop and the court has completely rehabilitated the clergy post mortem, and declared him innocent of the alleged crimes. Archives were also opened, in which documents of the Archbishop's case were kept.

His honor is named on the premises of the Tartu Catholic Education Center, and a memorial plaque (open on 11 September 1990) has been placed in the St Peter and St Paul Roman Catholic Church in Tallinn.

The Bishops' Conference of the Russian Federation initiated on 30 January 2002 the beatification process of Archbishop Eduard Profittlich (along with 15 lay people, priests and bishops). After the Congregation for the Causes of Saints granted the "nihil obstat" under the title "Causa Beatificationis seu Declarationis Martyrii Servorum Dei Eduardi Profittlich Archiepiscopi titularis Hadrianopolitani in Haemimonto Administratoris Apostolici Estoniensis, ex Societate Iesu et XV Sociorum", on 30 May 2003 an ecclesiastical procedure was opened in Saint Petersburg for Eduard Profittlich's beatification.