Antoni Kowalczyk (1866-1947), Canadian friar of Polish origin, member of the Congregation of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. At the age of 20 and with a journeyman's qualification as a blacksmith, he set off abroad in search of work. In Germany, he discovered the religious congregation of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. After taking his vows in the Netherlands, he was sent to the mission in Canada, where he arrived in 1896. A year later, at the mission in Lac La Biche, while working in a sawmill, a machine crushed his hand and arm up to the elbow. He lost his hand, but pointing to his mutilated forearm he repeated: "This is a great grace for me". He died in the reputation of holiness in 1947 and was buried in the Oblate cemetery in St Albert. Preparations for his beatification process began in the 1960s, and in 2013 Pope Francis signed the decree on the heroicity of Brother Kowalczyk's virtues.