Abstract
Rev. Adolf Giżyński was born in Kaunas, Lithuania. Throughout his early years, he was very much associated with the scouting, of which he was a leading activist. For his underground activity, he was detained by the German invader and arrested. He was in concentration camps in Germany. After the liberation by the British, he stayed in Western Europe. In the years 1946–1952, he studied theology at the Polish Higher Theological Seminary in Paris. In 1952, he was ordained priest and undertook pedagogical and catechetical studies at the Institut Catholique de Paris (Catholic University of Paris). He was incardinated to the Gorzów Apostolic Administration but stayed in Paris, where he was the prefect in the Lower Theological Seminary and a lecturer of catechetics at the Higher Theological Seminary in Paris. Throughout that time, he helped in the pastoral care of the Polish immigrants and tried to write his doctoral dissertation.
In 1969, he came to Poland and started working in the parishes of Szczecin. For a year, he worked in the St. Joseph Parish in Szczecin. In the years 1970–1973, he was the vicar of the Holy Cross Parish, with residence in a filial church in Krzekowo. After creation of the Szczecin-Kamień Archdiocese, he was successively a vicar in the following parishes: St. Stanislaus Kostka (1973–1974), St. Stanislaus Bishop & Martyr in Cychry (1975–1980). In addition, he also served in Gryfice and Warnice near Pyrzyce. Constantly suffering and unable to find himself in the structures of the Szczecin-Kamień Church, accused of contacts with women and fatherhood, he returned to France, where he became a chaplain at the convent of the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, where he also dedicated himself to prayer for the vocations to the Szczecin-Kamień Archdiocese. He died in France on 17 December 1984.