CZECHOWSKI, Michael Belina (1818-1876) and (first wife) Marie Virginie (c. 1821-1870) and (second wife) Wilhenmina (née SCHIRMER) (?-?)

The first Seventh-day Adventist missionary to Europe, M. B. Czechowski was a former Franciscan monk, priest, and militant Polish nationalist. Disillusioned by laxity and corruption in the Catholic Church, Czechowski left the priesthood in 1850. In the same year he married Marie Virginie Delavouet and in 1851 emigrated to the United States, arriving in New York on September 3 aboard the Yorktown. Within a year Czechowski had come into contact with the Baptists in Canada East and subsequently became a Baptist preacher for about three years among French Canadians in northern New York.1EGWLM 819.1

Czechowski's first contact with Sabbatarian Adventism was in 1856 when he heard James White and others preach in Perry's Mills, New York. His baptism the following year and move to Battle Creek created quite a stir of anticipation among Adventist leaders. By the summer of 1858 he was appointed to preach among the French-speaking groups in northern New York that he had previously worked with as a Baptist preacher. James White appealed for donations from Review readers to help the poverty-stricken Czechowski family pay off a mortgage and get settled.1EGWLM 819.2

Together with several other preachers Czechowski did creditable work in the border areas of New York, Vermont, and Canada, but after less than two years, in 1860, he left his post and moved to New York City, without consulting Battle Creek leaders or local colleagues. Aiming to start a city mission in New York, Czechowski rented property, ran up high bills, and then appealed for donations through the Review to cover the costs. When in addition it became apparent after about a year that his city mission was yielding scant results, church leaders, while never doubting Czechowski's zeal and ardor, began to question his financial management capabilities and general trustworthiness. Thus when by the early 1860s he began seriously petitioning church leadership to sponsor him to start a mission in Europe, there were doubts on all sides. As J. N. Andrews explained some years later: “We thought him not at that time prepared for so responsible an undertaking. We therefore requested him to wait. … We did not think him a prudent manager.” In a similar vein, Ellen White appealed to Czechowski in 1861: “Hold yourself ready to follow the opening providence of God, but you should not mark out a course for yourself.”1EGWLM 819.3

As it turned out, Czechowski was not willing to wait or take counsel, and with his relations with Battle Creek strained he ultimately turned to non-Sabbatarian Adventists (in particular the Advent Christians) for financial aid to pursue his European plans. It was a dubious tactic, since Czechowski did not make it clear to the Advent Christians that he was still an earnest Seventh-day Adventist, whereas they assumed that his break with Battle Creek was also a doctrinal one. The tactic backfired within a few years of his arrival in Italy in 1864. By 1869 The World's Crisis, main organ of the Advent Christians, warned its readers that Czechowski “has been receiving our contributions to raise up a company of Jewish Sabbathkeepers.” Donations soon dried up, and since no funds were forthcoming from Battle Creek either, Czechowski's mission experienced severe financial difficulties during its final years before his death in 1876 in Vienna. Nevertheless his years in Europe produced some very solid results on which J. N. Andrews was able to build when he arrived in Switzerland in 1874 as the first “official” Seventh-day Adventist missionary to Europe. Writing in 1870 with a tinge of regret, James White saw the hand of Providence in it all: “While we acknowledge the hand of God in this, we feel humbled … that in consequence of our fears to trust money with Bro. Czechowski, and our lack of care to patiently counsel him as to its proper use, God used our most decided opponents to carry forward the work.”1EGWLM 819.4

Most of the information in the above sketch has been taken from the well-documented collection of essays Michael Belina Czechowski 1818-1876, edited by Rajmund Ladyslaw Dabrowski and B. B. Beach. See also Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1820-1897 (National Archives Microfilm Publication M237, Microfilm Roll: M237_104), records of the U.S. Customs Service, Record Group 36; National Archives, Washington, D.C., as in Ancestry.com database online. For specific quotations above, see J. N. Andrews, “The Case of Eld. M. B. Czechowski,” Review, July 8, 1873, p. 29; Ellen G. White, Lt 31, 1861 (c. 1861); L. T. Cunningham, World's Crisis, Dec. 22, 1869, p. 54; [James White], “Cause in Switzerland,” Review, Jan. 11, 1870, pp. 21, 22.1EGWLM 820.1