SAINTS AROUND US - 2022

 

   

We all have our favorite saints and  at times see them as our friends in need. The Church celebrates so many thousands and each country has their own, with their particular feast day. So why do we have one day a year to celebrate all together?

 It is to celebrate all who have gone before us, who have not yet, or will never be, officially recognized by the Church. Many led hidden lives- how many canonized saints were not recognized as holy, till after their deaths, like St. Faustina. 

Many were considered to be spiritual guides and mentors, who add their prayers in heaven to those offered by us still living in the material world. We all know people we considered holy, who were examples of how we should live our lives. And while they will never be canonized, we know they are in heaven, in communion with those of us on earth. Isn't that what a saint is-  our holy friends. 

Holiness isn’t simply a matter of being separate from the world. It does not mean cutting ourselves off from the world.  It means to be involved in this world and its people, but in heart and in action to be different, to be true followers of Christ. It is to be holy as  we are called to be, in our own unique way, not matter our state  of life: religious, married or single. 

One of my favorite saints, Christina the Astonishing (d. 1224- Belgium) said "we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses who have gone before us"  But I say, look to those around you now.  “Without holiness no one will see the Lord”. (Heb. 12:14)

Painting: "Jesus Among the Saints" 

(Fidel Pages & Raimon Roca-

 Santa Maria Auxiliadora, Barcelona,  Spain)

MOTHER OF AUSCHWITZ

 

BL. STANISLAWA LESZCZYNSKA was a Polish midwife who was incarcerated at Auschwitz during World War II, where she delivered over 3,000 children. 

 She was born to a Polish Catholic family of carpenter Jan Zambrzycki and his wife Henryka, in the Bałuty neighborhood of Lodz in the Vistula Land under the Tsarist rule. Her father was drafted into the imperial army when she was a child, and sent to Turkestan. To make ends meet, her mother worked 12-hour shifts at the Poznański factory; her earnings allowed Stanisława to go to a private school where classes were in Polish.

 Upon her father's return to Poland, the family left for Brazil in 1908 seeking greater economic opportunity, staying in Rio de Janeiro, but returned after two years. Stanisława completed high-school in 1914, just as the First World War broke out. Her father was drafted again. She stayed with her mother and two younger brothers.

 In 1916 Stanisława married printer Bronisław Leszczyński.  She gave birth to son Bronisław in 1917, and two years later, daughter Sylwia. In 1920 the family relocated to Warsaw. Stanisława enrolled at the midwife college and completed her studies with an Alumnae Achievement Award in 1922. They moved back to Łódź. She got a job as a midwife, and in the same year gave birth to her second son Stanisław. In 1923 her third son, Henryk, was born.

 After the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany at the onset of World War II, the Leszczyński family was forced to relocate to Wspólna 3 Street when the Łódź Ghetto was created for the Jews by the Nazi occupation administration. Żurawia Street, where they used to live, became part of the ghetto area. 

The Leszczyńskis began helping the Jews in gettos by delivering food items and false documents. However, Stanisława was caught and brought to the Gestapo on February 18, 1943. Her younger children, Sylwia, Stanisław, and Henryk were also arrested. Her husband and son Bronisław managed to avoid capture and fled the city. 

The Nazis sent the two boys as slave labor to the stone quarries of Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp.  Stanisława never saw her husband again; he died in the Warsaw Uprising.

 After interrogation by the Gestapo, Stanisława and her 24-year-old daughter Sylwia were transported to Auschwitz concentration camp on April 17, 1943, and tattooed with the camp numbers 41335 and 41336 respectively. Stanisława was relegated to women's camp infirmary along with her daughter, who had been a medical student before the war broke out. Stanisława met Dr Mengele, and was advised to write reports about birth problems and diseases in childbirth.

When Stanislawa heard what was expected of her in the macabre maternity ward, she refused. When she was taken to the doctor who oversaw the entire camp, she again refused. “Why they did not kill her then, no one knows,” said Stanisława’s son Bronislaw in 1988.

Despite threats and beatings, Stanisława  simply began caring for mothers and delivering their babies. Despite knowing that most babies she delivered would be killed within a few hours, she worked to save as many of the mothers’ lives as she could.

It was almost impossible work—no running water, few blankets, no diapers, little food. She quickly learned to have women in labor lie on the rarely lit brick stove in the center of the barracks—the only place that could accommodate a laboring woman. Lice and diseases were common in the “hospital,” which would fill with inches of water when it rained.

Years later, she described how she put her life at risk to save newborns in a work called Raport położnej z Oświęcimia (The Report of a Midwife from Auschwitz). In this record she mentions the meeting with Mengele who requested from her a report about childbed fever cases and cases of death during the accouchements. She also described how the newborns were snatched away, taken to another room, and drowned in a barrel by Schwester Klara, who was imprisoned at Auschwitz for infanticide, and her assistant, Schwester Pfani. 

Stanisława and her assistants did their best to tattoo the babies who were taken in the hopes they would later be identified and reunited with their mothers. Other women killed their babies themselves rather than hand them over to the Nazis.

Of the 3,000 she delivered, some 2,500 newborns perished; a few hundred others with blue eyes were sent away to be Aryanized. Only about 30 infants survived in the care of their mothers. Expectant mothers did not realize what was going to happen to their babies and many traded their meager rations for fabric to be used for diapers after the birth. Stanisława remained the camp's midwife until it was liberated on January 26, 1945. 

Stanisława felt helpless as she watched the babies she delivered be murdered or starve to death, their mothers forbidden to breastfeed. But she kept on working, baptizing Christian babies and caring as best as she could for the women in the barracks. They nicknamed her “Mother.”

In early 1945, the Nazis forced most inmates of Auschwitz to leave the camp on a “death march” to other camps. Stanisława refused to depart, and stayed in the camp until its liberation.

Bl.  Stanisława’s legacy lived on long after the liberation of Auschwitz—both in the memories of the survivors whose babies she attempted to give a dignified birth, the lives of the few children who left the camp alive, and the work of her own children, all of whom survived the war and became physicians themselves.

“To this day I do not know at what price [she delivered my baby],” said Maria Saloman, whose baby Stanisława  delivered, in the 1980s. “My Liz owes her life to Stanislawa Leszczyńska. I cannot think of her without tears coming to my eyes.”

 Stanisława returned to Łódź, and her children also arrived there from the forced labor camps. She settled in an apartment and continued working as a midwife locally.  

Remembering Auschwitz, she prayed over every child she delivered. On January 27, 1970  Bl .Stanisława attended an official celebration in Warsaw, where she met the women prisoners of Auschwitz and their grown-up children who had been born in the camp. She died four years later.

Several hospitals and organizations in Poland are named after Bl. Stanisława; the main road at Auschwitz concentration camp museum is named after her and so is a street in the city of Łódź. In 1983 the School of Obstetricians in Kraków was named in her honor.

Her feast day is May 8.

MYSTICAL NURSE

 

Another amazing Polish nurse of this period was SERVANT of GOD ROZALIA CELAKOWNA. She was born to a peasant family in 1901 in Jachówka near Maków Podhalański. Her parents, Tomasz and Joanna struggled to raise their eight children from the small piece of land they owned. Concerned that their children had a good Catholic formation, they daily prayed together, said the Rosary, and frequently received the Eucharist.  Reading the Holy Scriptures and religious books played a great role in this education and well as singing together for hours. Due to their piety some called their home - not without malice - "a monastery where nuns are brought up."

Rozalia experienced her first mystical encounters with Christ at the age of six. A year later, according to the memoirs she wrote down, Jesus called her to trust Him fully. From then on, He often spoke to her soul. She heard His voice almost every day. “The Lord Jesus spoke to my soul (...). In this way, He drew my soul to Him and made everything that was not Him bitter”.

In 1914, after six years of study, she graduated from primary school with very good results. Unfortunately, her parents were unable to finance her further education. So she stayed at home for the next few years, helping her parents on the farm.

This is what Rozalia wrote about her parents: “From my earliest years, they inculcated into my soul the deep tenets of holy faith and the love of God and neighbors. They watched over my soul to guard it from any corruption. At home, I had never been set a bad example.”  

 From her parents, Rozalia learned how to mold her character: to overcome selfishness, to acquire humility and meekness, to be able to forgive, to be good and kind, and ready to serve the elderly and needy. First of all, however, she learned how to grow in the love of God.

At the end of World War I, Rozalia decided to take a private vow of chastity. She did it in front of the statue of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception in the parish church in Bieńkówka.

The following years were difficult. She experienced "terrible spiritual suffering", fighting  temptation and discouragement. Her confessors, who did not understand her spiritual condition, could not help her. This "dark night" lasted until March 1925. Similar experiences, though not so long-lasting, were also repeated in later years.

In August 1924, Rozalia moved to Krakow. Living with a friend, an elderly nurse, she pondered her future. She dreamed of joining a convent, but her repeated requests for admission to contemplative orders were refused due to the lack of places.

At the beginning of 1925, she started working at the surgery ward of the St. Lazarus. After a month, she was transferred to the venereal diseases ward. There,  this young, innocent girl was forced to associate with vulgar, often blaspheming prostitutes. She began to wonder if this was really a place she should stay with for longer. 

 Admittedly, during the prayer she heard the voice of Christ: In the hospital there is a place reserved for you, by My will”. In spite of this work she decided to join the Poor Clares, yet  eventually her health deteriorated. Her body was considered too weak to cope with the hardships of religious life.

On the advice of her confessor, she returned to St. Lazarus working in the ophthalmology clinic. However, the Lord Jesus made her feel that she should return to the venereal diseases ward.  Rozalia obeyed the will of the Lord, who said to her: You are to work in this place to reward Me for these terrible sins and to console my Divine Heart. I want you here”.

She would  receive many offers from her superiors to take other, more independent and better paid positions. But she always refused. She tried to deepen her knowledge and gain skills that would help her work better in the venereal diseases ward. In 1933, she completed a nursing theory course, and after completing her secondary school education, she obtained a qualified nurse diploma.

She was valued for caring not only for patients' bodies, but also for their souls. Converted prostitutes began to call her "beloved Rózia" and even "mother". They prayed with her, sang pious songs, and received the sacrament of penance.

It is significant that during the twenty years of work in the hospital, during her shift, no patient died who would not be reconciled with God.

Her  great dedication is also evidenced by the fact that she took on most of the night duties, willingly replacing her friends. Unfortunately, despite her modesty, constant willingness to help and consensual character, there were people who tried to humiliate her. They even used a possessed woman who beat and called Rozalia horrid names. However, she offered all her sufferings to God, thanks to which, many people were converted.

In difficult moments, she sought consolation in prayer, Holy Communion, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and a mystical conversation with Jesus.

Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, Christ entrusted her with one more task - to convey to the hierarchy of the Polish Church the news that it is the will of the Son of God that He should be solemnly proclaimed the King of Poland. Enthronement should have been accompanied by the conversion of all Poles. “Only a complete spiritual rebirth and putting oneself under the control of my Heart can save Poland and other nations from total extermination”, Christ often repeated to her. 

 Rozalia handed over the will of the Lord Jesus to Primate Cardinal August Hlond. Unfortunately, despite his good will, the whole thing dragged on. Primate Hlond wanted to be sure that Rozalia's mysticism was authentic. Despite the urgings of Christ, the enthronement was not carried out before 1939 and the fall of the Second Polish Republic.

“Look, child, what a terrible insult and pain are inflicted by unclean sins, murders of [children] and terrible hatred who does not know what love for My neighbor is”, Jesus complained about the Poles.  Like St. Faustina Kowalska, she prophesized the destruction of Warsaw.  

After the occupation of Krakow by the Germans, Rozalia continued to work in the hospital. Hard work and difficult living conditions, and health complications caused by Plautus-Vincent's angina, she died in the presence of her relatives and friends, September 1944. 

On her grave there is a sculpture of a stylized heart with its porcelain oval image, over which a small cross is placed.

 

MISSION SUNDAY- THE LOVE OF A PEOPLE

Many tend to think of Catholic missionaries as religious, priests, sisters and brothers, but there are many in the foreign fields who are lay men and women.  One example close to us is a past intern, Hannah, who is in MALAWI, one of Africa’s poorest countries. This country is nicknamed "The Warm Heart of Africa" because of the friendliness of its people.  

Malawi is a landlocked country in central Africa with about 18 million people, 85% of which live in rural areas, 53% below the Poverty Line. Malawi has a low life expectancy and high infant mortality. Malawi, one of the world's least developed countries, has an economy heavily based on agriculture, with a rapidly growing population. Just 6% of the population has ready access to sanitation facilities, and deadly diseases like Cholera are tragically common because so many families must rely on contaminated water sources.

The Malawian government depends heavily on outside aid to meet its developmental and educational needs, although the amount needed (and the aid offered) has decreased since 2000. 

Jesuit missionaries from Mozambique evangelized the area around Lake Nyasa in the late 16th and early 17th centuries and the White Fathers  (most of whom were French) arrived in Malawi in 1889. By 1904, the White Fathers had three permanent mission stations. 

Malawi is a majority Christian country, with the Roman Catholic Church the largest group. Today there are over 2 million Catholics in Malawi - around a third of Christians and a fifth of the total population. 

By the late 20th century the Church had grown in Malawi, in part due to the availability of a translation of the Bible in the two main local languages, Chichewa and Tumbuka, which was completed in 1971. Other factors included the achievement of political independence, the Church's emerging role as a leader in the push for a democratic society and the influence of the Second Vatican Council in shaping Church life and pastoral activities in Malawi during the first decades of independence.

In May of 1989 Pope (St.) John Paul II visited Malawi and encouraged Church leaders to take an active role in righting the wrongs perpetrated by the Malawi government. In 1992 the bishops issued the pastoral letter Living Our Faith, condemning the extensive human rights abuses of the Banda dictatorship. The letter served as a catalyst for political change: while government action was taken against the bishops, it prompted such public defiance as student marches and strikes, while Malawians of all faiths showed solidarity by attending overcrowded Catholic masses. 

While areas of the country are developing and slowly overcoming poverty, Hannah's small rural village still suffers from lack of many necessities for a healthy life. But one thing Hannah writes of in her regular Blog, is the kindness towards neighbor.  

On this MISSION SUNDAY, we  pray for her and all who labor to improve the lives of others less fortunate in material goods, but who  take heart in the goodness they see in these mission fields.

TO LOVE WITH A FREE HEART

 

While the Ukrainian war continues, the Polish people continue to help the many fleeing refuges.

Many people in this caring nation, who never lost their faith in spite of wars, are being considered for canonization. Declared venerable in May 2022 was the Polish laywoman, JANINA WOYNAROWSKA, a poet and nurse known for her dedication in caring for various types of infirmity, despite herself suffering from a serious physical impairment.

Janina was born in Piwniczna in Małopolska in 1923. Her mother died during a typhus epidemic and she was  adopted  by a wealthy titular physician, Colonel Kazimierz Witold Strzemię-Woynarowska, president of the municipal gymnastic society "Sokół", and his wife, Maria Jadwiga née Twarogi, member of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. The circumstances of her adoption are unknown. The family lived in Chrzanów, in a house known as the "white manor house", where charitable activities were carried out: meals for the poor, material and medical assistance was provided, all given freely with family warmth, and an  atmosphere of religion and patriotism. 

Her friend, Marysia Lubasz, remembered the moments of their childhood:

For every name day, family celebration and church holidays, Janina recited poems, sang songs and played the piano. Together, we decorated the armchairs with flowers and ribbons, on which her parents sat during these pleasant moments, also very happy. In the evening, guests would come to the living room and we played in the dining room.  Janeczka's cousin Leszek often came to Janeczka, she liked him very much, he knew a lot of games and he told the books he read nicely. In the summer we played in the garden adjacent to the house. And in the winter we used to go to the ice rink at “Sokół” on Sokoła Street. We both loved ice skating but the snowball games were nice too.

Janina was a sickly child, staying at home the first two years of primary school. Her education was interrupted at the outbreak of WWII.  Her parents then decided that they would organize secret classes in their home for several children.  

 Soon the family was ordered to leave the "white manor" and move to an apartment.  During the occupation, many girls were ordered to work digging anti-aircraft ditches, including Janina.

 At the end of World War II, in 1945, the Woynarowska family was allowed to return to their own, partly destroyed house. Shortly after, her father died. Janina started working at the Obwodowa Clinic as a junior hygienist, and after six months she was promoted to senior hygienist. On June 26, 1946, she took a nursing oath, and a year later she completed an additional course for employees of the Social Insurance Institution.

 In 1950 she obtained the state certificate of a registered nurse. She daily attended Mass and adoration of Christ on the Cross. 

 “In my life, Christ took the first place, He is everything for me (...) in the daily living of the faith that I took from my family home as the greatest treasure, the greatest good.”

 After World War II, she started working as a hygienist and then a nurse in Chrzanów. She participated in the life of the parish and belonged to the Living Rosary group. She combined deep religious commitment with social and charity activities as well as poetry.

 In 1961, she took annual vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, and became a member of the Secular Institute of Christ the Redeemer of Man in Krakow. Five years later, she made her perpetual vows in the hands of the Archbishop of Krakow, Cardinal Karol Wojtyła (St John Paul II).

 She collaborated with nursing and medical magazines: “Nurse and Midwife”, “Służba Zdrowia” and “Zdrowie” and graduated from the Faculty of Psychology and Christian Philosophy.

She worked not only as a nurse, but also as a social probation officer and spokesperson giving advice at the adoption center. She provided premarital and family counseling, organized leisure and retreat trips for sick, elderly and lonely. She founded the House of a Single Mother.

She suffered from progressive scoliosis, plaguing her since childhood, yet did not let that prevent her caring for others. 

On November 24, 1979, on a rainy and snowy Saturday, she died driving a car from Bochnia to Chrzanów together with doctor Emilia Szurek-Lusińska near Krakow's Pasternik, when their car skidded and hit a tree. The homily during the funeral Mass on November 29 was delivered by Bishop Jan Pietraszko from Krakow, with a large participation of the faithful. 

She did not give birth, but gave the Love
which she enveloped a helpless, orphan being for ever.
She invited into
her life, she shared her life - watching day and night with the readiness of tender hands.
The light of serene glances was distracted by the fear of a child's heart,
which ...
sings a ceaseless song - Mateńko ...  (Poem written at the death of her mother).

     STIGMAS

       To love with a free heart

       like a bird - all creation,

       to restore his Creator's mark

       not knowing hatred,

       jealousy

       the madness of possession,

       that everyone could become a brother -

       you have to let your hands and feet be pierced again -

       like on Calvary.

THE PROTECTING VEIL

 

Today,  October 14, Ukrainians celebrate the Feast of the Protection (Ukrainian “Pokrova”) of OUR MOST HOLY LADY THEOTOKOS . Of the feasts dedicated to the Mother of God, this one deserves a special attention.

 According to Eastern Orthodox tradition, the apparition of Mary the Theotokos occurred during one of the sieges of Constantinople at the Blachernae church, where she spread her veil over all the people in the church as a protection. As the result the enemies withdrew and the city was rescued.

The "Slavic and East European Journal" explains that the word Pokrova means “‘Holy Protection of the Mother of God,’ ‘the Protectress,’ ‘Festival of the Veil,’ ‘Protecting Veil.'”

Ukrainians in particular have kept this devotion to Our Lady  alive over the years, frequently turning to it during times of war and political upheaval.

They continue to venerate Mary in this way, depicting her in icons with a veil that she offers to cover those with her protection.

 Often there is an inscription on the devotional images that says, ““I will cover my people” or “We pray: cover us with Your Holy Veil and deliver us from evil.”

In 1912, St. Pope Pius X remarked to r Bishop Mykyta Budka: "Your nation cannot perish, for it has two guarantees: your nation loves the Eucharistic Christ and the Most Pure Virgin Mary. With these guarantees the nation cannot perish."

We pray with the Ukrainian people today, that Our Lady  intercede for them for an end to violence and a lasting peace.

A SLOW DEATH

 

SISTER MARIA MALGORZATA BANAS, may have been left behind by her superior, when the community went off to martyrdom, but she has not been forgotten. In December  2021, Pope Francis approved the decree on the heroic virtues enabling her to now be  "Venerable Servant of God".

Ludwika Banas was born on April 10, 1896, near Wadowice in Poland. She worked with the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth in Wadowice before entering the congregation shortly before her 21st birthday, receiving the name Malgorzata. When she professed her final vows, Sr Malgorzata added to her name the mystery of the Heart of Jesus in Agony in the Garden.

 In 1934, Sister was assigned to the convent in Nowogrodek, where she worked in the local hospital. She was ministering in Nowogrodek when, on July 31, 1943, the Gestapo ordered Sr Stella and all her sisters to report to police headquarters. As the Sisters made their way they met Sr Malgorzata who, dressed in lay clothes, was returning from work at the hospital. 

Sr Stella told her to return to the hospital and take care of the priest and the Fara, the parish chuch. They never saw each other again, for the following day Sr Malgorzata’s eleven Sisters were taken to the woods, shot and buried.

 

With the help of the local townspeople, Sr Malgorzata discovered the Sisters’ grave in the woods and committed herself to its care and protection until the bodies of the Sisters could be brought to the Fara for a proper burial. During the Communist period, Sister lived in the Fara’s sacristy and continued to prepare children for the sacraments. When the parish priest went into hiding for his own safety, Sr Malgorzata maintained the presence of the Blessed Sacrament in the church and helped keep the faith of the townspeople alive.

Venerable  Malgorzata died on April 26, 1966. She was heard to say many times, “Spiritual martyrdom is a slow death – that is what I desire”.