Emil Joseph Kapaun (April 20, 1916 – May 23, 1951) was an American Catholic priest and United States Army captain who served as a chaplain during World War II and the Korean War.
Kapaun was a chaplain in the Burma Theater of World War II, then served again as a chaplain with the U.S. Army in Korea, where he was captured. He died in a prisoner of war camp.
In 2013, Kapaun posthumously received the Medal of Honor for his actions in Korea. He is the ninth American military chaplain awarded the Medal of Honor. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced Kapaun’s body was accounted for on March 2, 2021.
In 1993, Pope John Paul II declared him a Servant of God, the first stage on the path to canonization in the Catholic Church. In 2025, Pope Francis declared him Venerable, the next stage on the path to canonization.
He was most remembered for his great humility, bravery, constancy, love, kindness, and solicitude for his fellow prisoners. “He was their hero… their admired and beloved “padre.” He kept up the POWs’ morale, and most of all, helped a lot of men to become good Catholics.”
Reports received noted that Kapaun’s feet had become badly frozen, but he continued to administer to the sick and wounded. He continuously went out under heavy mortar and shelling to rescue wounded and dying soldiers, risking capture or death.
Many accounts have been given of the many creature comforts he provided his comrades of the 8th Cavalry Regiment during imprisonment. They were both spiritual and physical. He provided endless hours of prayer and what nourishment he could find to all he could to keep them from starving to death.
When Kapaun was assigned to the 8th Cavalry Regiment, which was surrounded and overrun by the Chinese army in North Korea in October and November 1950, he stayed behind with the wounded when the Army retreated. He allowed his capture, then risked death by preventing Chinese executions of wounded Americans too injured to walk.
Following his death, as Kapaun’s actions became known, Catholic faithful began to offer devotional prayers to him; these prayers came from U.S. service members, laymen and women across the United States, as well as those in East and Southeast Asia.
In 2015 several men came together to form Kapaun’s Men, a movement that seeks to continue Father Kapaun’s legacy of encouraging men to accompany one another in faith. The group has produced a documentary life of Father Kapaun, several video series.
Father Emil Kapaun’s gravesite is located in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Wichita, Kansas. His remains were positively identified in 2021 after being buried among unknown soldiers in a mass grave in Hawaii.
