At the age of 16 he was admitted to the order of Franciscans. Between 1932 and 1937 he studied philosophy and theology in Krakow. He was ordained in 1936. After completing his studies he joined the Franciscan monastery in Grodno. In 1939 he became a second vicar in Iwieniec (Ivyanets). "Operation Hermann" was an operation by the Nazi's targeted especially against the Catholic resistance, and in particular, Franciscan friars Józef Achilles Puchała and Karol Herman Stępień, beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1999, were tortured to death by the Nazis.