61 anniversary of the departure of Michał Tokarzewski-Karaszewicz

Michał Tokarzewski-Karaszewicz, Loża Wolnomularska at W:. Kielce, May 22, 2025

Today we celebrate a sad anniversary.

On 22 May 1964, he left for the Perpetual Lodge our Patron, Brother Michał Tokarzewski-Karashewicz.

He died abruptly in Moroccan Casablanca, a fewer hours after arriving from London, where he lived permanently (via Amsterdam and Paris, where he visited friends along the way). The direct origin of death was a ruptured aorta. Almost to the last moments of his life, Brother-General actively cared about public affairs, about the destiny of his loved ones, he besides cared about the affairs of the soul, as shown by His last letters, written during a exhausting journey. It was expected to bring him remainder and contribute to the recovery of the damaged wellness (he went to the sanatorium, run by Polish expatriates). The rehearsal was unfortunately late.

The body of the deceased was shortly transported to the UK, after which they were solemnly buried at London's Brompton Cemetery. The ceremony was attended by the communists, not only Polish. A mourning service at St. Martin's Catholic Church, and then the ceremony itself, was led by the priest canon Jan Brandys – a friend of the deceased and his comrade in arms, then Dean of the Polish Army (of course this emigration). However, he did so as "in civilian and private" (as the biographer of the ICC, D. Bargiełowski writes), without wearing full liturgical robes and without certain elements prescribed by the official, funerary church ceremony.

This was the consequence of the unobvious spiritual and spiritual choices of the deceased. Raised in Catholic tradition and his full life closely connected with it intellectually, he was at the same time a theosopher, co-organizer and even a priest of the Liberal Catholic Church, and above all an active freelour, Master of the 33rd degree of the Scots Rite of the Old and the Recognized. Thus Fr Brandys, in his farewell speech, referred to him as "general-philosophy," a man "wise, noble, and profoundly believing, who gave evidence to the fact with his life."

Polish generals and officers at the ceremony recalled, in turn, the soldier's merits of the deceased: starting with the youthful legionaries, through the conspiracy work in the POW, effective command of the rescue for Lviv at the turn of 1918/19, the summertime buoys with Bolsheviks in 1920, and then the conflict of Bzura and the defence of Warsaw in the tragic September'39, establishing under business of the Polish triumph Service (recasted later in the ZWZ and the AK), a stay in russian prison, co-organizing the Polish Army in the USSR and then in the mediate East... until, after the war and emigration, the honorary function of General Inspector of the Armed Forces. His sensitivity to social affairs, integrity and patriotism were besides mentioned... What is characteristic, was besides spoken by the erstwhile war opponent Tokarewski (from the fight for Lviv at the threshold of 1919), and somewhat later his comrade in arms (during the Kiev expedition in 1920) – Colonel Pawło Wasylewski, then president of the Ukrainian National Council. "Let this heartache and tears strengthen the Polish people's desire to fight against (...) the neighbour with bloody paws, the eternal enemy and Poland and Ukraine," he said.

By creating 9 years ago the first free-growing workshop in the East of Kielce, we did not accidentally choose Michał Tokarzewski-Karashewicz as our patron. He symbolizes the synthesis of virtues and values which we considered to be the most crucial for us also: individual integrity and engaged patriotism, belief in Poland fair and modern, the durability of social and political convictions while beginning up to another people's viewpoints, industriousness and readiness to sacrifice for the Cause, and at the same time the depth of spiritual reflection and courage of even very unconventional intellectual searches.

The anniversary of the death of Brother General Michael is an chance for us to remind others, but above all – ourselves.

Let us cry, cry, cry... but let us not lose hope!