The Catholic Church in the Baltic state of Estonia will gain its first Blessed on Saturday.
Austria’s Cardinal Christoph Schönborn will preside on behalf of Pope Leo XIV at the Sept. 6 beatification of Archbishop Eduard Profittlich, S.J., in Freedom Square in the capital, Tallinn.
Tallinn’s Bishop Philippe Jourdan has described the event as “not only a major moment for Estonia’s Catholics, but for the entire nation.”
“For the first time, someone will be declared Blessed in Estonia who lived, served and suffered right here in our land — in the heart of Estonia,” he wrote in August.
Who was Archbishop Profittlich? And what is his legacy?
Eduard Gottlieb Profittlich was born on Sept. 11, 1890, into a farming family in Birresdorf, a village in the Rhineland region of Prussia. He was the eighth of 10 children and was baptized on the day of his birth.
He wanted to follow his older brother, Peter, into the Jesuit order. (Peter would die as a missionary in Brazil in 1915, at the age of 37.) But Profittlich’s parents insisted that Eduard enter the seminary in Trier, believing he would be more financially secure as a secular priest. He left the seminary in 1913, after just two semesters, to enter the Jesuit novitiate in the neighboring Netherlands.
He was forced to pause his studies when the First World War broke out. He spent the war years serving as a nurse and surgical assistant at a military hospital in Belgium.
After his priestly ordination in 1922, Profittlich volunteered to serve in the Jesuits’ Russian mission. He was sent to prepare for the task in Kraków, Poland, where he became proficient in Polish.
While he was in Kraków, relations between the Vatican and Russia’s new communist government deteriorated, making it impossible for him to travel to the country.
He was sent instead to the city of Opole, which then belonged to Germany but is now in Poland, to serve as a preacher and retreat master. He was later transferred to Hamburg, where he was responsible for the pastoral care of Polish immigrants.
Profittlich’s experiences in Poland and his work with Polish migrants made him a suitable candidate to serve in Estonia, where the minority Catholic community was predominantly Polish.
In 1930, Archbishop Antonino Zecchini, S.J., the apostolic administrator of Estonia, invited Profittlich to serve as a pastor in Tallinn.
Estonia was a relatively small country long dominated by its vast eastern neighbor, Russia, and other foreign powers such as Denmark, Germany, and Sweden. It faced considerable economic challenges after it declared independence in 1918, following the collapse of the Russian Empire.
It was difficult to provide adequate pastoral care for the country’s Catholics, who were widely dispersed, multilingual, and culturally marginal in the predominantly Lutheran country with a significant Eastern Orthodox presence.
Given that Estonia bordered the militantly anti-religious Soviet Union, the Vatican believed that the local Catholic community needed targeted support. In 1931, Estonia was designated a “special apostolic administration” under the Pontifical Commission Pro Russia, and Profittlich was named apostolic administrator.
Profittlich quickly gained recognition in Estonia far beyond the confines of the Catholic community. He immersed himself in the Estonian language and culture. Non-Catholics attended Masses to hear him preach, and his monthly magazine Kiriku Elu (“Life of the Church”) was read by the country’s intelligentsia. He expanded the number of Catholic parishes, and welcomed more priests and religious to the country. He also promoted religious education in schools and established a well-regarded boys’ boarding school.
Profittlich engaged in negotiations to secure the legal status of Catholic parishes and helped to strengthen ties between the Baltic nation and the Holy See. In 1935, he became an Estonian citizen. A year later, he was named a titular archbishop in recognition of his labors. He chose the episcopal motto Fides et pax (“Faith and peace”).
Profittlich continued to work diligently amid the omens of a new war in Europe. In 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, defining Soviet and Nazi spheres of influence in Eastern Europe. Estonia fell into the Soviet sphere. Following Germany’s invasion of Poland, the Soviet Union occupied Estonia in 1940.
Profittlich was initially unsure whether to stay in the country or return to Germany. The German embassy in Tallinn pressed him to leave Estonia. As a German-born Catholic archbishop, the Soviet occupiers were bound to see him as a potential enemy and likely to deport him to Russia.
He sought Rome’s advice. The Vatican replied that Pope Pius XII gave him “complete freedom to decide what he considered best ‘in the Lord.’”
The message resolved his doubts. On Feb. 10, 1941, he wrote to Rome, declaring his decision to remain in Estonia.
“I do so with great willingness, indeed, I can say, with great joy,” he said. “Although I cannot in any way predict how my life will unfold, what sacrifices still await me, I walk this path with great trust in God, firmly convinced that if God walks with me, I will never be alone.”
The Soviets launched a severe repression in Estonia, with more than 60,000 people undergoing arrest, deportation, torture, or execution. Profittlich decided to seek safety in the countryside, but wanted first to celebrate the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul at the cathedral in Tallinn named in their honor.
On June 27, 1941, the Soviet secret police searched his home for several hours, confiscating personal and official correspondence. They accused him of spying for Germany, pointing to his communications with the German embassy.
Before they led him away, he is said to have asked to be allowed to enter the cathedral for a final time. He prostrated himself before the altar and blessed a group of nuns who were present.
What happened next remained a mystery for almost 50 years, obscured by the silence of the Soviet regime. But following the collapse of the Communist Bloc in 1989, Estonian Catholics learned that Profittlich was taken to the Russian city of Kirov, where he faced interrogation.
On Nov. 21, 1941, he was condemned to death. He appealed, but the Soviet Union’s Supreme Court upheld the sentence. He died of exposure to harsh winter conditions at the prison in Kirov on Feb. 22, 1942, at the age of 51.
Years after his death, a letter he wrote to his relatives before his arrest arrived in Germany via a circuitous route.
It said: “I would have liked to tell everyone how good God is to us when we surrender ourselves completely to him, how happy one can become when one is willing to give up all freedom and life for Christ.”
“I know God will be with me. And then everything will be fine. And my life, and if it is to be, my death, will be a life and death for Christ. And that is so very beautiful.”
While Profittlich spent little more than a decade in Estonia, he left an indelible mark on the country.
Estonia’s Catholics credit him with helping the Church to survive the merciless early years of the Soviet occupation, because he strengthened the community throughout the 1930s and also offered an inspiring witness through his martyrdom.
Ultimately, perhaps, Profittlich’s greatest legacy is the small but growing Catholic Church in Estonia today.
His beatification cause was opened in 2002 by Russia’s Catholic bishops’ conference, but transferred to Estonia in 2014.
His beatification was initially scheduled for May 17, 2025, at Tallinn’s Town Hall Square. But following Pope Francis’ death, it was rescheduled for September, in Freedom Square, which is strongly associated with Estonia’s costly struggles for independence.
Tallinn’s Bishop Philippe Jourdan said in August that the beatification would offer Catholics in Estonia renewed encouragement.
“Archbishop Profittlich is now our intercessor in heaven — an Estonian at heart, a saint in his faith, a martyr in love,” he wrote.