BENEDICTINE POLISH REFORMER- WHO KNEW?

 

Just as I think I know every great Benedictine foundress/saint, I discover another.  What amazes me is the similarities between them, eg. Mother Mectilde de Bar (French), my own foundress in America in the 20th century and now this Polish nun, who was also known to be a mystic. 

SERVANT of GOD MAGDALENA MORTESKA was born in 1554 and is considered one of the most significant Polish Benedictines.

Her father was Melchior Mortęski, a senator of the Prussian states, and her mother, Elżbieta Kostczanka, was the sister of the bishop of Chelmno and a distant relative of  St. Stanisław Kostka (which is probably why she was so close to Jesuits).,

Her mother died when she was quite young, so she and her sister Anna were raised by their pius aunt.  While helping the servants prepare a meal, Magdalena put out her right eye. Hence the many paintings of her show her with one eye closed or squinting.

As a child, she decided to devote herself to God.  In that century the monasteries were in such disrepair and contempt that when she announced her intention, one of her father's courtiers exclaimed indignantly: "I would sooner die a bad death than let your Grace, being of such noble birth, be a nun!" She was also forbidden to learn to read and was kept under house arrest for several years, but she acquired the knowledge of letters and the opportunity to read secretly.

In the face of his daughter's steadfast resolve, the father finally agreed to allow her to enter a monastery, but not to the ruined Chełmno. He wanted her to have separate, private property, as was the case in monasteries that did not observe the rule. Magdalena resisted this and wanted to enter the monastery in Chełmno.

Finally, in 1578, she ran away from home to the Benedictine monastery in Chełmno.  There she found a ruin, no more Benedictine nuns, and a handful of confused candidates. She was able to pour her enthusiasm into them, find a forgotten rule and arrange religious life anew. She ruled this monastery for more than half a century, and despite great difficulties both legally and humanly, she managed not only to bring it to a flourishing state, but also to fill eight other foundations, either decrepit or new. In total, more than 20 monasteries were founded. It is from them that today, with the exception of Staniątki,  all the existing communities of Benedictine nuns in Poland come from.

Abbess Magdalena had a strong personality and was a good organizer and administrator. She introduced a new rule changing the medieval one in which  Benedictine nuns were not only contemplatives, but were to begin teaching.  The new rule was approved by Rome in 1605. Since then all the (Polish) Benedictine monasteries were to make a congregation under the leadership of the Chelmno Abbess.

 Additionally, a seminary educating future monastic chaplains was founded in Poznan. There were also  schools educating and bringing up girls from wealthy towns people and noble families. Educating nuns themselves in terms of reading and writing in Polish and Latin introduced by Abbess Magdalena, was an important element as well. 

Amazing, to me, is that she had such a mystical soul and yet took on this outward activity of education. (Very much in the manner of my own foundress, Mother Benedicta Duss).

Abbess Magdalena undoubtedly read the entire Bible.The list of authors cited by her is divided into: ancient monastic works  and writings by  Jesuits.  Apart from the Rule itself, the following saints appear: Augustine, Bernard, Gregory the Great and Cassian. She also introduced methodized meditation and required the nuns to write meditations.

According to those around her, Abbess Magdalena never taught anything that she had not prayed, experienced and fulfilled herself; both in her inner life and in daily monastic life.  All her life she undertook all menial work on an equal footing with others, even as Abbess. From the very beginning, the example of her zeal and determination was attractive to many girls, and her teachings had the authority of her example. In the environment she created, many outstanding women found their place, who could put their talents at the service of God, be it organizational, literary or any other.

Abbess  Magdalena took the meditation  of the Passion of Christ, about which she wrote her meditations in the monastery and the subject of which often appeared in her conversations and conferences; in this mystery she was constantly praying. It is known that she wrote a volume of meditations on the Lord's Passion.

Abbess Magdalena died after an illness lasting less than a month in February 1631. In her spiritual will (the so-called Knave), she did not appoint her successor, but wrote down three important pieces of advice for the sisters: to observe the Rule, to constantly practice their spiritual life, and to keep the cloister. She was buried in the monastery church in Chelmno under the main altar.

During her lifetime, she was highly valued by bishops and papal nuncios for reviving the monastic observance. Immediately after her death, she was honored as a saint. A manifestation of this are: two monographic works published by the Jesuits discussing the life and virtues of the deceased and paintings made - the oldest from the 17th century from the church in Młyniec and prayers and litanies in honor of Abbess Magdalena.

Father Brzechwa, a Jesuit, wrote a life clearly intended to prepare the beatification process. The body was solemnly moved to a separate grave in the crypt in front of the great altar with the participation of the Jesuits.  In 1709, an episcopal commission examined the body, which remained incorrupt. She was changed into a new habit.  With the dissolution of the Benedictine abbey in 1817, the process collapsed, and her body was hidden by the last nuns so that it could not be found.

Sisters of Charity later lived in the monastery. In 1881, Sister Michalina Żemałkowska came to Chełmno. On the nights of August 14/15 and August 15/16, she had dreams in which she found out where the nun, whose picture hangs in the choir above the confessional, rests. It was a portrait of  the abbess. This sister did not know about her name or about the following. 

When the news of this reached the superior and Fr. Gustaw Pobłocki, a search was undertaken and a coffin was found in the crypt outside the church walls, and inside it a body in the condition as described by the commissioners in 1709. The date "1741" and the initials "M. M. – X.K.C.” (Magdalena Mortęska, Abbess of the Chełmno Monastery). From the features of the face, the person from the portrait in the choir was immediately recognizable. The body rests in the crypt to this day.

On April 4, 1953, a commission chaired by the Ordinary of the Diocese of Chełmno, Bishop Kazimierz Józef Kowalski,  opened the coffin and recognized the body. The body was found dried, in good condition. Her right eye (which she had plucked out as a child) was missing. On the left side of the habit there were traces of a silver pastoral staff. On the coffin covered with blue material were the initials found in 1881 by Fr. Pobłocki, made of brass nails. And the features of the face were like the portrait in the choir. The coffin was duly described and sealed.

The cult continued in the Benedictine monasteries of the Chełmno reform until their dissolution. Portraits of the founder were hung everywhere or new ones were made. 

​Her beatification process was recently resumed by the diocese of Toruń. And in 2016, a book by Sr. Małgorzata Borkowska, OSB, was published by the Publishing House of the Institute of Theology of Missionary Priests, Kraków , devoted to the life and activities of the Servant of God, Mother Magdalena Mąrtęska, entitled: "The Vistula trail. The Tale of the One-Eyed Abbess Mortęska". (Can't wait for the translation).

"In the form of fiction, colorful, stylized Old Polish language, in a warm and often humorous way, Sister Małgorzata Borkowska (See following Blog) tells about the life of the Servant of God, bringing her life closer,  the activities she undertook and the spirit of the times in which she lived."