Blessed Blessed may refer to: * The state of having received a blessing * Blessed, a title assigned by the Roman Catholic Church to someone who has been beatified Film and television * ''Blessed'' (2004 film), a 2004 motion picture about a supernatural ...

Bronislava (

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

: ''Bronisława''; ''c.'' 1204–1259) was a Polish

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

of the

Premonstratensian The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré (), also known as the Premonstratensians, the Norbertines and, in Britain and Ireland, as the White Canons (from the colour of their habit), is a religious order of canons regular of the Catholic Church ...

Order. She is

beatified Beatification (from Latin ''beatus'', "blessed" and ''facere'', "to make”) is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their nam ...

in the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Early life

Bronislava was born at Kamień, Włodawa County, in eastern Poland as Bronislawa Odrowaz in about 1200, although some sources give a birth date of 1203Petit, François (2011)
''Spirituality of the Premonstratensians: The Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries''
Cistercian Publications (p. 136) or 1204. She was the daughter of Count Stanislaus and Countess Anna of Prandata-Odrowaz and a cousin of Saint

Hyacinth of Poland Hyacinth ( pl, Święty Jacek or ''Jacek Odrowąż''; ca. 1185 – 15 August 1257) was a Polish Dominican priest and missionary who worked to reform women's monasteries in his native Poland. He was a Doctor of Sacred Studies, educated in Pa ...

Religious vocation

At the age of sixteen, she was introduced by Hyacinth to a religious community of the

Norbertine The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré (), also known as the Premonstratensians, the Norbertines and, in Britain and Ireland, as the White Canons (from the colour of their habit), is a religious order of canons regular of the Catholic Church ...

order at Zwierzyniec, Kraków. She subsequently worked with the sick and poor at a number of

monasteries A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...

, living in a most austere way. She is believed to have seen a vision of the

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother o ...

at the moment of the death of Hyacinth in 1257. Bronislava died of natural causes on 29 August 1259 at Zwierzyniec.

Beatification and remembrance

Her cult began soon after her death, and in 1707 she was designated a patron of Poland, and of orphans. She was

Pope Gregory XVI Pope Gregory XVI ( la, Gregorius XVI; it, Gregorio XVI; born Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari; 18 September 1765 – 1 June 1846) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 2 February 1831 to his death in 1 June 1846. He h ...

on 23 August 1839, after being attributed for protecting

Zwierzyniec Zwierzyniec (; uk, Звежинець, Zvezhynetsʹ) is a town on the Wieprz river in the Zamość County, Lublin Voivodeship, Poland. It has 3,324 inhabitants (2004). Zwierzyniec is the northernmost town of the Roztocze National Park. The par ...

from cholera in 1835. Her feast day is celebrated on 1 September. She is commemorated by the Blessed Bronisława Chapel in

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

. A

minor planet According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''minor ...

discovered in 1933 was named " Bronislawa" in her honour. There is a street named for her in the

Ligota-Panewniki Ligota - Panewniki (german: Ellgoth-Panewnik; also "Idaweiche") is a district of Katowice in Poland. It has an area of 12.59 km2 and in 2007 had 31,879 inhabitants. Ligota-Panewniki is famous due to the magnificenFranciscan Basilica the headquart ...

region of

Katowice Katowice ( , , ; szl, Katowicy; german: Kattowitz, yi, קאַטעוויץ, Kattevitz) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Upper Silesian metropolitan area. It is the 11th most popul ...

References

{{Authority control 1204 births 1259 deaths 13th-century Christian saints Marian visionaries Polish beatified people Female saints of medieval Poland 13th-century Polish nuns Medieval Polish saints People from Włodawa County

Early life

Religious vocation

Beatification and remembrance

See also

References