Catholic priest, Reverend Father Aleksander Makulski, who moved from Poland to England and became a much admired member of the community in Appleby and Kirkby Stephen, has died.
Born in Poland with three brothers and one sister, his late parents, Frank and Josefa, encouraged him into the church.
There was never any doubt that Aleksander would become a priest and he had a very strong vocation from an early age.
At 14 he was already involved as a missionary in his parish and as soon as he finished his formal education at the local grammar school he went to a Catholic seminary to spend the next six years studying for the priesthood.
He was ordained priest on 23rd May, 1963, at Poznan, Poland.
He joined a parish in Poland but after three years was invited to visit an uncle in the UK.
Aleksander — who was known around Eden as Father Alex — saw his life take a new direction when a parish in Lincoln was seeking a replacement priest and in view of the fact that the previous holder had been imprisoned in the notorious Dachau concentration camp in wartime, the parishioners were anxious to have one of Polish birth.
The rector of the Polish Catholic Mission in London and the Catholic Bishop of Nottingham pleaded to the Home Office for Father Alex to get the job and he was granted permission to stay in the UK.
He served in Lincoln for 16 years before moving to the Preston and Blackburn area of Lancashire, serving in the parish of St Anne’s.
Up until then a good deal of his ministry had been spent among Polish communities but in his new parish he joined with Father Jim McCatney in devoting a great deal of their time and effort in helping the many deprived families in the area.
His next move was to the parish of St Pius 10th, Barrow, after which he was appointed at Appleby in 2009 when he became parish priest minister of the Catholic Church of Our Lady of Appleby and the parish at Kirkby Stephen.
During his time in Appleby he became much admired by both his flock and throughout the town.
He was a very well known personality, whose cheerful, outgoing personality endeared him to everybody he met and was a regular supporter of good causes — often seen on Saturdays in the supper room of the Appleby public hall at weekly coffee mornings.
He also arranged a number of pilgrimages to Poland which Eden parishioners joined him on.
In September, 2015, he moved to pastures new when he was appointed priest at Saint Charles’s Church, Grange-over-Sands.
In total he spent 55 years serving both Polish and English communities in England.
Father Alex died on Tuesday 3rd November in Radmon, Poland, after a short time in hospital. The funeral will take place in Poland.
