Jānis Mendriks

Servant of God Jānis Mendriks M.I.C.
Born	21 January 1907 Logocki, Kalupe, Latvia
Died	1 August 1953(1953-08-01) (aged 46) Vorkutlag, Siberia, Soviet Union
Venerated in	Catholic Church

Part of a series on
Persecutions of the Catholic Church
show Overview Historical persecution of Christians Vatican and Eastern Europe 1846–1958 Catholic Church persecutions 1939–1958 Eradication of the Church under Stalinism Eastern Catholic persecutions Persecution of Christians in the modern era
show Roman Empire Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire Diocletianic Persecution
show Neo-Persian Empire Sasanian conquest of Jerusalem
show Byzantine Empire East–West Schism Massacre of the Latins
show Muslim world Muslim conquests Conversion of non-Islamic places of worship into mosques Armenian genocide Assyrian genocide Greek genocide Kosheh massacres
show Saudi Arabia Christianity in Saudi Arabia
show Sudan Christianity in Sudan
show Egypt Maspero demonstrations
show Islamic terrorism Persecution of Christians by ISIL
show Japan Martyrs of Japan
show European wars of religion Thirty Years' War
show France Dechristianization of France during the French Revolution War in the Vendée
show Mexico Cristero War Iniquis afflictisque Acerba animi Saints José Sánchez del Río Persecution of Christians in Mexico Miguel Pro
show Spain Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War Red Terror · Dilectissima Nobis Martyrs of Turon Martyrs of Daimiel Bartolomé Blanco Innocencio of Mary Immaculate José María of Manila 233 Spanish Martyrs 498 Spanish Martyrs 522 Spanish Martyrs
show Netherlands Titus Brandsma
show Germany Nazi persecution of the Catholic Church in Germany Mit brennender Sorge Alfred Delp Alois Grimm Rupert Mayer Bernhard Lichtenberg Max Josef Metzger Karl Leisner Erich Klausener
show China Martyr Saints of China Auguste Chapdelaine Persecution of Christians in China Ad Sinarum gentem Cupimus Imprimis Ad Apostolorum principis Ignatius Kung Pin-Mei Beda Chang Dominic Tang
show Vietnam Vietnamese Martyrs Nguyễn Văn Thuận Ngô Đình Diệm (Buddhist crisis, Huế Phật Đản shootings, Huế chemical attacks, Double Seven Day scuffle, Xá Lợi Pagoda raids, 1963 South Vietnamese coup, arrest and assassination of Ngô Đình Diệm)
show Poland Maksymilian Kolbe Polish anti-religious campaign 1945–1990 Stefan Wyszyński 108 Blessed Polish Martyrs Policies In Poloniae annalibus Gloriosam Reginam Invicti athletae Jerzy Popiełuszko
show Eastern Europe József Mindszenty Eugene Bossilkov Severian Baranyk Josef Beran Drina Martyrs Genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia Zynoviy Kovalyk Aloysius Stepinac Meminisse iuvat Anni sacri Sára Salkaházi Walter Ciszek Pietro Leoni Theodore Romzha
show India Violence against Christians in India 2008 attacks on Christians in southern Karnataka
show El Salvador Four U.S. missionaries Ignacio Ellacuría Rutilio Grande Ignacio Martín-Baró Segundo Montes Óscar Romero 1989 murders of Jesuits
show Nigeria Religious violence in Nigeria
show Guatemala Stanley Rother
show United Kingdom Anti-Catholicism in the United Kingdom List of Catholic martyrs of the English Reformation Forty Martyrs of England and Wales Irish Catholic Martyrs Dissolution of the Monasteries Penal Laws Cromwellian conquest of Ireland
show Philippines Lorenzo Ruiz Pedro Calungsod Gomburza
show North Korea Catholic Church in North Korea
show Norway Anti-Catholicism in Norway
Catholicism portal
v t

Jānis Mendriks (21 January 1907 – 1 August 1953) was a Latvian Catholic priest killed in the Vorkuta Uprising in the Soviet Gulags.

Biography[]

Mendriks was born in Logocki, Kalupe Parish, in southern Latgale (then in Russian Empire). He attended Riga Seminary (Rīgas Katoļu garīgais seminārs) after which he was ordained a priest at St. James's Cathedral, Riga on 3 April 1938. He was a member of the Congregation of Marian Fathers. After his ordination, he served as a vicar at the Marian parish in Viļāni.

In 1942, while he served a parish in Ostron, a German policeman died. He knew the man to be impenitent, and denied him burial in hallowed ground. This refusal required him to hide from German occupation authorities.^[1]

Grave marker in Siberia with his incorrect birth year

After the Soviet re-occupation of Latvia in 1944, he resumed parish work.^[1] He was arrested on 25 October 1950 and sent to prison in Riga. On 24 March 1951 he was sentenced to 10 years of forced labor for "organizing anti-Soviet nationalist gangs and for anti-Soviet propaganda." He was deported to the Komi Republic and worked at a coal mine in the Vorkuta Gulag. Mendriks secretly fulfilled his priestly duties in the labour camp.

Inmates at Vorkuta who were forced to work in the region's coal mines went on strike during the Vorkuta uprising in July 1953. The mostly passive strike was put down on 1 August, when troops were ordered to fire at the strikers, resulting in the deaths of at least 42 prisoners, including Mendriks.

Mendriks has been honoured by the Roman Catholic Church as a Servant of God since 2003.

References[]

Sources[]

• Biography from the Website of the Marianists

External links[]

• Servant of God Fr. Janis Mendriks MIC 1907–1953
• (in Italian) Servant of God Janis Mendriks: Priest and martyr