The article concentrates on describing the life and activity of Józef Markiewicz. Józef Markiewicz was born in Drohobycz on 18 July 1865. His father worked as a civil servant and his mother worked at home and looked after their eight children. Young Józef Markiewicz was a very good student. He learned in Drohobycz, and after 1875 in Krakow. In 1883 he entered the seminary and started studies at Jagiellonian University at the Faculty of Theology. He also studied philosophy at Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome for one year. When he was in Rome he realized that he should enter the Society of Jesus. He came back to Krakow and was ordained on 29 June 1888 and in November decided to enter the Society of Jesus in Stara Wieś. He was well-known as a zealous and conscientious priest. He worked as a teacher of Latin and religion in Chyrów and later as a preacher in Stanisławów. He was also responsible for novices in Stara Wieś. During all these years, however, he was thinking about missions in Africa. He had been interested in missions since his teenage years. As a Jesuit, he requested his superiors to send him on a mission to Africa for 3 years, from 1900 to 1903 and finally in 1903 he received permission to go to Congo Free State. He worked with Jesuits from Belgium. However, he worked only for five years. Unfortunately his health deteriorated because of hard work, famine, humid and tropical climate, difficult relationships with the government and Bakongo’s people. He contracted yellow fever and died on 24 November 1908 in Kimpako.