ANGEL OF MERCY

 

BL. MALGORZATA LUCJA  (Margaret Lucy) SZEWCZYK was born in 1828 in Szeptówka in Volyn, Ukraine  (now Poland) to a noble family. Orphaned at an early age, she was cared for by her half-sister.   In the difficult situation of partitions and persecution of the Church at the age of 20, she made her tertiary profession in the Third Order of St Francis.

In 1870-1873 she served sick pilgrims in Jerusalem. Afterwards, she went to Zakroczym. Having participated in a retreat led by Bl Honoratus Koźmiński, she rented a flat and began gathering poor and sick elderly women whom she took care of devotedly in her own apartment, as the Russian Tsar , who ruled Poland at the time, banned the Catholic Church from public activity. Gradually, other women joined her work. However, the capacity of the apartment was not enough and she was forced to relocate to a larger house.

With the aid of her confessor Bl Honoratus (Capuchin priest), she founded the Congregation, which with time came to be known as the Daughters of the Sorrowful Mother of God – Seraphic Sisters.

After 10 years, she moved to Galicia. She built a convent in Oświęcim  (Auschwitz) which became the General House of the congregation whose aim is to bring help to the deserted and sick, as well as to educate the children of orphanages and shelters. She died on 5 June 1905.

She was then beatified together with another religious and founder of the congregation, Zofia Czeska-Maciejowska, on June 9, 2013, in the Divine Mercy Sanctuary in Krakow. Cardinal Angelo Amato presided over the ceremony on behalf of Pope Francis .

Her feast day is June 5.