The text contains a description of the life and activities of Father Józef Wrzesiński, a person with immeasurable success in the fight with poverty, whose ideas and deeds changed our perceptions of poverty and the poor and revolutionised the investigation of poverty. The author presents the elements of his biography, growing up himself in poverty and then carrying out work among the homeless, which formed the character of Father Wrzesiński and shaped his attitudes towards poverty and the poor. She shows the novel nature of his ideas in the field of studying poverty, which comprised including the poor themselves in the process of creating knowledge about poverty.