A LIFE OF DARKNESS

As we begin a new month, it is time to get back to some new saints.  The following was meant to be last month with others, who in suffering, offered themselves to God.

BL. ELZBIETA ROZA CZACKA was born in Bila Tserkva in Kiev Governorate (today Ukraine)) as the sixth of seven children to Count Feliks Czacki and Countess Zofia Ledóchowska. Her great-grandfather was Tadeusz Czacki and her uncle was Cardinal Włodzimierz Czacki. The Czacki family of the Świnka coat of arms came from Silesia and were part of the Polish nobility. Many outstanding ancestors contributed to its importance, including Cardinal Włodzimierz Czacki, the secretary to and friend of Pope Pius IX and later advisor to Pope Leo XIII. Róża's father was the grandson of Tadeusz Czacki, the founder of Krzemieniec Lyceum, member of the Commission of National Education, co-author of the May 3rd Constitution and co-founder of the Warsaw Society of Friends of Learning. Through her mother, Zofia, she was related to Cardinal Mieczysław Ledóchowski. In her childhood she learnt how to play on the piano and also learnt how to ride horses. She also became proficient in English and also mastered German and French and also studied ecclesial and medieval Latin.

Gifted with a very good ear for music, Róża took singing, dancing and piano lessons. She also went horse riding. The Czacki family was wealthy, which allowed for the selection of appropriate teaching staff and educational activities. The parents required from their children considerable independence and self-discipline, and paid particular attention to virtues such as modesty and respect for the dignity of others, including those who were of lower social status. Róża's mother had a strict approach towards her children and tried to avoid expressing warm feelings. (Photo right is the palace where Roza was born.)

Since childhood, Róża experienced health problems.  A hereditary eye disease plagued her, yet her family refused to accept her progressive blindness, even though the disease was making it increasingly more difficult for Roza to function.

 The turning point came in 1898, when as a result of falling off a horse, the retinas of both of Róża's eyes became detached. At the age of 22, she became completely blind.

Roża's parents spared no efforts to restore her daughter's sight. It was hoped this would be achieved thought trips abroad to the most renowned ophthalmologists. These, however, proved fruitless. The breakthrough finally came when Róża turned to the ophthalmologist Bolesław Ryszard Gepner, who told her: ‘Don’t allow yourself to be carted from one foreign fame to another. There is nothing here that can be done, the state of your eyesight is quite hopeless. You’d be better off taking care of the blind, as they are not looked after by anyone in Poland’. 

 Róża decided to start her mission to help the blind through charitable work. She visited the patients of ophthalmic clinics, contacted doctors who could treat them and organized fundraising at Holy Coss Churchin Warsaw. In this charity work, she was supported by her mother, whose approach to her daughter had now warmed. Róża came to the conclusion that her aid to those in need should not be limited to sporadic actions. She traveled to the West to learn how to organize institutional care for the blind. Braille was not yet used in Poland, so she found inspiration in the outstanding French promoter of braille, Maurice de la Sizeranne.

After returning to Warsaw in 1910, Roza opened a shelter for young blind women, where she taught them to read braille. These lessons started also being attended by blind males. The small center soon expanded its activities, and in 1911 it became the Society for the Care of the Blind, whose official status was confirmed that same year by the tsarist authorities.

 The Society ran care and educational facilities for the blind, including: a primary school with Polish as the language of instruction, a basket-weaving workshop for boys and male adults, a nursery for the youngest children and a nursing home for elderly women. In 1912 she also established open care of the blind and she instigated the transcribing of books into Braille. In 1913, she founded the first library for the blind in Poland.

Róża drew attention to the fact that the blind suffer not only on account of their disability, but also due to ingrained social perceptions of their supposed mental and psycho-physical debilities. She considered it a mistake to exclude blind people from everyday activities or to keep them in isolation. Roza tried to combat prevailing stereotypes though education and the example of her own active life. By writing studies, various appeals and memoranda to representatives of the authorities she popularized knowledge about the blind. Her goal as an organizer of aid for people without sight was to provide them with maximal independence, enabling them to find their place in society with a sense of being useful and having their own dignity.

The work she had begun was halted by the outbreak of the First World War. Her Society struggled with serious shortages of food and other items essential for everyday existence. Initially, she lived in the home of the habitless sisters of the Third Order of St Francis. She planned to found a new congregation whose major mission would be to serve the blind. Róża took her vows and adopted the religious name of Elżbieta (Elisabeth). After the ban on wearing religious garments was officially lifted, she donned the Franciscan habit. Her work received approval from the apostolic nuncio Achille Ratti (the future Pope Pius XI) who lauded her efforts as an exceptional apostolate.

Shortly before the Second World War, Sr. Elzbieta's work was in full bloom. By its outbreak she had turned Laski into a modern center. There, her pupils received a basic and vocational education allowing them to live on their own, financially independent, included in society and often having their dignity restored. The number of blind students as well as teachers and carers grew. There were 41 blind students in 1928. By the school year of 1938/39, there were 230 blind children, youths and adults in the boarding schools of Laski, and 437 at the Society's open centers in Warsaw and other cities.

During the war, students had to be evacuated, and Sr. Elzbieta herself was wounded during the siege of Warsaw, when a bomb fell on the building where she was staying. She lost an eye, which had to be removed, without anaesthesia. 

After the end of the war, Sr. Elzbieta had much help, even from groups in New York. In 1950 she retired her role as the Superior General for her order, having held the post since around 1923, due to her declining health. She died in Laski on 15 May 1961. She was beatified in September 2021 along with Cardinal Stefan Wysznski (The Primate of Poland who led the Church’s resistance to communism). 

She lived her life in darkness, yet spread the Light of Christ to all whom she touched. Her feast day is May 19.

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