Anna Kolesárová (14 July 1928 – 22 November 1944) was a Slovak

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

virgin Virginity is a social construct that denotes the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. As it is not an objective term with an operational definition, social definitions of what constitutes virginity, or the lack thereof ...

and a

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' Word stem, stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In ...

. Her life was cut short in 1944 when a Soviet soldier killed her after she resisted his rape attempt. Those who knew her best described her as being a modest and simple girl who attended

Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

each morning and assumed care of the household following her mother's death in her late childhood. Kolesárová's beatification process opened in 2004 and she became titled as a

Servant of God Servant of God () is a title used in the Catholic Church to indicate that an individual is on the first step toward possible canonization as a saint. Terminology The expression ''Servant of God'' appears nine times in the Bible, the first five in ...

upon the cause's launch. The process culminated on 6 March 2018 after

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

confirmed both that she had died ''in defensum castitatis'' ("in defense of chastity") and her forthcoming beatification. The beatification was celebrated on 1 September 2018 in Slovakia.

Life

Childhood and adolescence

Anna Kolesárová was born on 14 July 1928 in the

Michalovce District Michalovce District (''okres Michalovce'') is a district in the Košice Region of eastern Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the e ...

in the former

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

to Ján Kolesár (known to friends as "Hruška") and Anka ''née'' Kušnírová. Anna was the youngest of three, she had a half sister, Mary, and a brother Michal. Her

baptism Baptism (from ) is a Christians, Christian sacrament of initiation almost invariably with the use of water. It may be performed by aspersion, sprinkling or affusion, pouring water on the head, or by immersion baptism, immersing in water eit ...

was celebrated in their local parish on 15 July. The Kolesárs were described as a pious farmers that were frequent

attendees who lived out their faith in concrete manners. Her mother died sometime after she turned ten and it fell upon her to assume care of the household and for her older brother Michal. Those around her described her life as being both modest and simple while also noting her frequent presence at church. Kolesárová attended Mass with her friends after she completed the household chores. In 1944 - in the

autumn Autumn, also known as fall (especially in US & Canada), is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Southern Hemisphe ...

- the final and bloodiest phase to

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

(the Eastern front) was passing through the Kolesárová's native Zemplín region, which was then a part of the Hungarian state. It was during this violent transition period that the people living in surrounding villages would hide in their cellars to wait for the shelling and fighting to end.

Murder

On 22 November 1944 the Red army soldiers entered the town. Her father Ján sheltered with his children and their neighbors in the cellar under the kitchen. During a tour of the house one drunken Soviet soldier discovered the hideout and peered inside. Kolesárová's father bade her to "give him something to eat" and so she emerged from the hideout and walked up to the kitchen to serve the soldier food and water in the hopes of maintaining peace and to prove that she and the others posed no threat to the soldier. The uncertain nature of the war prompted her and other women in the village to wear black dresses in order not to attract unwanted attention to themselves and to discourage improper behavior from the soldiers. But this did not deter the soldier from making unwanted sexual advances towards her. Kolesárová refused his advances and pulled herself out of his grip as he attempted to

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse, or other forms of sexual penetration, carried out against a person without consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person ...

her. The soldier pursued her to the basement. There the soldier jumped her and ordered her to die in front of her father before he pointed his

PPSh-41 The PPSh-41 () is a selective-fire, open-bolt, blowback submachine gun that fires the 7.62×25mm Tokarev round. It was designed by Georgy Shpagin of the Soviet Union to be a cheaper and simplified alternative to the PPD-40. The PPSh-41 saw ...

automatic rifle An automatic rifle is a type of Self-loading rifle, autoloading rifle that is capable of fully automatic firearm, automatic fire. Automatic rifles are generally selective fire, select-fire weapons capable of firing in Semi-automatic firearm, semi ...

at her and killed her on the spot for her refusal; she was killed in front of her father and brother with two shots to the face and chest. Her final words were recorded as: "Goodbye father! Jesus, Mary, Joseph!" The girl had made her confession and had received Communion not long before she was killed. Her remains were buried the next evening despite the intense fighting occurring in the area but the funeral was conducted without a

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

in secret so as to remain safe. The priest Anton Lukáč celebrated the solemn funeral rites one week later on 29 November 1944.

Aftermath

Lukáč was the parish priest for the village of Pavlovce nad Uhom and later himself investigated her death. He interviewed the villagers and obtained signed statements from five witnesses. He then recorded the incident into his parish's chronicles and in the register noted that she died to defend her innocence. The

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

priest Michal Potocký also provided information about Kolesárová's life and the circumstances surrounding her death. Despite this - and after the war had ended - the new

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

government of Czechoslovakia banned mention of the incident and enforced a strict ban on open gatherings at the grave site. The house that she once lived still remains. It now is used by an organization founded and dedicated to her for people of her age. The Domček organization organizes volunteer work as well as social events and workshops. There are also frequent pilgrimages to her grave (three times per year, in February, April and August), while in Pavlovce nad Uhom there is a large gathering that is dedicated to her which is popular among adolescents.

Beatification

The beatification process commenced on 3 July 2004 after 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, passi ...

titled her as a

and declared "

nihil obstat (Latin for 'nothing hinders' or 'nothing stands in the way') is a phrase traditionally used by Catholic Church authorities to formally declare that there is no objection to the publication of a book. It also has other uses. Publishing The ...

" (no objections) to the cause. The diocesan investigation into her life and murder was opened in

Košice Košice is the largest city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary. With a population of approximately 230,000, Košice is the second-largest cit ...

on 2 April 2005 and was closed on 14 February 2012 after hearing from 38 people. The C.C.S. later validated the diocesan process in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

on 14 June 2013 and received the 650-paged

Positio A ''positio'' (short for the Latin ''positio super virtutibus'': "position on the virtues") is a document or collection of documents used in the process by which a Catholic person is declared Venerable, the second of four steps on the path to can ...

dossier from the postulation (officials leading the cause) in 2015 for evaluation. Theologians approved the cause following their assessment of the dossier as did the C.C.S. members later on 6 February 2018. Her beatification received official confirmation on 6 March 2018 after

confirmed that Kolesárová had died "in defensum castitatis" (meaning to defend herself as a virgin). The beatification was celebrated in her native Slovakia on 1 September 2018 and around 30 000 people attended the Mass. The current

postulator A postulator is the person who guides a cause for beatification or canonization through the judicial processes required by the Catholic Church. The qualifications, role and function of the postulator are spelled out in the ''Norms to be Observed i ...

for this cause is Doc. Andrea Ambrosi. The current vice-postulator is Juraj Jurica.

References

External links

Hagiography Circle

Official site of Domcek
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kolesárová, Anna 1928 births 1944 deaths 20th-century Roman Catholic martyrs 20th-century Slovak people 20th-century venerated Christians Beatifications by Pope Francis Roman Catholic child venerables Deaths by firearm in Slovakia People from Michalovce District People murdered in Slovakia Slovak murder victims 20th-century Slovak women Slovak beatified people Sexual violence in Europe during World War II Virgin martyrs