Zofia Czeska-Maciejowska (1584 – 1 April 1650) was a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

professed religious and the founder of the Sisters of the Presentation. Czeska was married before a brief period of time before following her call into the religious life. Her beatification was celebrated on 9 June 2013.

Life

Zofia Czeska-Maciejowska was born in the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi- confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Poland and Lithuania ru ...

in 1584 as one of nine children to Mateusz Maciejowska and Katarzyna Lubowiecka; one sister younger than her was Anna. Czeska married in 1600 to Jan Czeska and was widowed in 1626 childless at which point her religious calling flourished. Czeska organised a

school A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes comp ...

for girls 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 ...

from 1621 until 1627 (at 18 Szpitalna Street) and then decided to found a women's religious institute that she titled the Sisters of the Presentation which she set up on 31 May 1627. Thus the institution that she had introduced was dedicated to the care and the education of poor and orphaned girls which she threw herself into with much apostolic vigor. In 1602 she joined a religious movement that the Jesuit priest

Piotr Skarga Piotr Skarga (less often Piotr Powęski; 2 February 1536 – 27 September 1612) was a Polish Jesuit, preacher, hagiographer, polemicist, and leading figure of the Counter-Reformation in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Due to his oratoric ...

founded. Once she returned home after

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different eleme ...

and a man kidnapped her demanding the two be married; she refused and the man married her little sister Anna. Czeska died on 1 April 1650 and her remains were interred in the

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's Forum (Roman), forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building ...

. Her order continues to operate in both her native

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

and in the

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

. In 2008 there were 126 religious in 18 houses and the order was aggregated to the

Order of Friars Minor The Order of Friars Minor (also called the Franciscans, the Franciscan Order, or the Seraphic Order; postnominal abbreviation OFM) is a mendicant Catholic religious order, founded in 1209 by Francis of Assisi. The order adheres to the teachi ...

on 19 April 1938.

Beatification

The beatification process opened in a diocesan process in Kraków on 1 April 1995 and concluded its business on 20 November 1997; during the process the formal assent to the cause was granted under

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

on 2 June 1995 and granted the use of the title of Servant of God after the official "

nihil obstat ''Nihil obstat'' (Latin for "nothing hinders" or "nothing stands in the way") is a declaration of no objection that warrants censoring of a book, e.g., Catholic published books, to an initiative, or an appointment. Publishing The phrase ''ni ...

" was granted. The process was validated on 30 March 1998 and the

Positio In the Catholic Church, a ''positio'' (''Positio super Virtutibus'') is a document or collection of documents used in the process by which a person is declared Venerable, the second of the four steps on the path to canonization as a saint. Des ...

was sent to the

Congregation for the Causes of Saints In the Catholic Church, the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, previously named the Congregation for the Causes of Saints (), is the dicastery of the Roman Curia that oversees the complex process that leads to the canonization of saints, pass ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

in 2005 for assessment. Historians approved the cause on 14 March 2006 as did the theologians on 25 February 2011 and the C.C.S. on 7 June 2011. On 27 June 2011 she was proclaimed to be

Venerable The Venerable (''venerabilis'' in Latin) is a style, a title, or an epithet which is used in some Western Christian churches, or it is a translation of similar terms for clerics in Eastern Orthodoxy and monastics in Buddhism. Christianity Cat ...

after

Pope Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the soverei ...

found that she had lived a life of

heroic virtue Heroic virtue is a phrase coined by Augustine of Hippo to describe the virtue of early Christian martyrs and used by the Catholic Church. The Greek pagan term hero described a person with possibly superhuman abilities and great goodness, and "it ...

. The miracle for her beatification was investigated from 5 September 2003 until 9 January 2004; it was validated later on 4 July 2008. A medical board approved it on 31 May 2012 as did theologians on 6 October 2012 and the C.C.S. on 10 December 2012. Benedict XVI signed a decree that recognized a miracle attributed to her on 20 December 2012. Cardinal

Angelo Amato Angelo Amato, S.D.B. (born 8 June 1938) is an Italian cardinal of the Catholic Church who served as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints between 2008 and 2018. He served as Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of ...

- on the behalf of

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...

- celebrated the beatification on 9 June 2013 in Kraków. The current postulator for this cause is Sr. Maria Renata Gąsior.

References

External links

Servant of God Mother Zofia Czeska

Saints SQPN

Zofia Czeska
{{DEFAULTSORT:Czeska-Maciejowska, Zofia 1584 births 1650 deaths 17th-century venerated Christians 17th-century Polish Roman Catholic nuns Beatifications by Pope Francis Founders of Catholic religious communities 17th-century Polish nobility Polish beatified people Venerated Catholics by Pope Benedict XVI