MARTYRS of NOWOGRODEK

Polish nuns who were massacred  in WWII and beatified in 2000 by Pope  (St.) John Paul II in 2000 were an example to the nuns just beatified in Poland in June of this year. (See previous Blog)

The MARTYRS of NOWOGRODEK , also known as the Blessed Martyrs of Nowogródek and the Eleven Nuns of Nowogródek or Blessed Mary Stella and her Ten Companions, were a group of members of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, a Polish Roman Catholic religious congregation, executed by the Gestapo in August 1943 in occupied Poland (present day Navahrudak, Belarus. 

The Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth had arrived in Nowogródek, then part of the Second Polish Republic, in 1929 at the request of Zygmunt Łoziński,  Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pinsk. The Sisters became an integral part of the life of the town. In 1939, Nowogrodek, located at that time in Kresy-part of pre-war Poland (nowadays central Belarus), was annexed by the Soviet Union and incorporated into the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1941, the town was occupied by the German army as part of the Operation Barbarossa.

 During the Nazi and Soviet occupations of Nowogrodek, the Sisters invested great effort in preparing the residents of the town for religious services – as liturgical prayer became a beacon of hope amid the hopelessness of the occupation.

 The Nazi terror in Nowogródek began in 1942 with the extermination of the town's Jewish population as part of Operation Reinhard. Of the 20,000 inhabitants of the town before the war, approximately half were Jews. The Germans murdered about 9,500 of the Jews in a series of "actions" and sent the remaining 550 Jews to slave labor camps. This was followed by a surge in Polish arrests, then the slaughter of 60 people, including two Catholic priests. This situation was repeated on 18 July 1943, when more than 120 people were arrested and slated for execution.

 The women of the town turned to the Sisters to pray for the prisoners’ release. After discussing the matter, the Sisters unanimously expressed their desire to offer their lives in sacrifice for the prisoners. The Superior of the community, Sister Maria Stella, C.S.F.N., shared the Sisters' decision with their local pastor, Father Zienkiewicz, telling him: "My God, if sacrifice of life is needed, accept it from us and spare those who have families. We are even praying for this intention."

Almost immediately, the plans for the prisoners were changed to deportation to work camps in Germany, with some of them even being released. When the life of  Father Zienkiewicz was threatened, the Sisters renewed their offer, saying, "There is a greater need for a priest on this earth than for us. We pray that God will take us in his place, if sacrifice of life is needed."

  Without warning or provocation, on 31 July 1943, the community was summoned by the local Gestapo commander to report to the local police station, where they were held overnight. The next morning, 1 August 1943, they were loaded into a van and driven beyond the town limits.

 At a secluded spot in the woods about 3 miles from the town, the eleven women were machine gunned to death and buried in a common grave. Before reporting to the police station, Sister Stella had asked one member of the community, Sister M. Malgorzata Banas, C.S.F.N., who worked as a nurse in the local public hospital, to stay behind at the convent, whatever happened, to take care of the church and their pastor.

 She was the best candidate for that among the community as she wore civilian clothing due to her job. It was days before she and the townspeople knew that the Sisters had been killed. Eventually, Sister Banas located their grave, quietly tending to it and the parish church during the war years and during the post-war Soviet occupation, until her death in 1966.

The Church of the Transfiguration, known as Biała Fara (or White Church), now contains the remains of the eleven Sisters. 

The Sisters were: Stella, Imelda, Kanizja, Rajmunda, Daniela, Kanuta, Ser-gia  Gwidona, Felicyta, Heliodora, and Boromea.  Their feast is September 4.

Interesting to note, for some reason, Sister Sergia was sent to the USA in 1925, doing her novitiate in Des Plaines, Illinois.  In 1926  she was sent to Philadelphia and made her final vows there in 1932.  The following year she returned to Poland.