Hanna Helena Chrzanowska

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Roman Catholic Church
Beatified28 April 2018, Divine Mercy Sanctuary, Kraków, Poland by Cardinal Angelo Amato
Canonized28 October 2018
Feast29 April
Attributesnurse's cap

Hanna (Hannah) Helena (Helen) Chrzanowska (7 October 1902 – 29 April 1973) was a

Nazi regime targeted Poles but she tended to the wounded and the ailing throughout the conflict and sought to minimize suffering in her own parish.[1] Chrzanowska was awarded two prestigious Polish awards for her good works and died in 1973 after an almost decade-long bout with cancer
.

Her cause of sainthood commenced over a decade after her death and she was titled as a

venerable on 30 September 2015 upon the confirmation of her heroic virtue and later approved her beatification in mid-2017; Chrzanowska was beatified on 28 April 2018 in Poland.[2]

Life

Hanna Helena Chrzanowska was born on 7 October 1902 in

Protestant (descended from the Jauch house). Chrzanowska was a relative of the Nobel laureate Henryk Sienkiewicz (on her father's side) who was best known for writing the novel Quo Vadis.[1]

Her maternal grandfather Karol set up a technical school for aspiring artisans while his wife Maria set up a health center for poor children in Warsaw. Her maternal aunt Zofia Szlenkier was known for her philanthropic efforts and in 1913 founded a children's hospital named after Maria and Karol.[1] Since her childhood she suffered from respiratory and immune system deficiencies and spent a great deal of time in hospitals and sanatoriums in order to recover from such ailments. As a child she once noticed a boy alongside her in hospital whose clothes were so worn out to the point they were thrown out. But that meant the boy had no clothes he could wear to return home. So she arranged to present him with a new set of clothes much to his delight.[1] In 1910 the family relocated from Warsaw to Kraków.

Chrzanowska – a curious and exuberant individual – attended an

Red Cross as a nurse in a time when the profession was not so well respected.[2][1]
Chrzanowska also travelled to Belgium to observe the nursing profession there as part of her education so as to gain greater experience and broader knowledge of the field. During her time as a nurse she became a leading light in the field in her region and became a well known face in her local area due to her temperance and her good works amongst the people whom she was dedicated to serving. Chrzanowska became an instructor at the University School of Nurses and Hygienists in Kraków from 1926 until 1929 and also served as the editor of the monthly publication "Nurse Poland" from 1929 to 1939. She also worked to help form the Catholic Association of Polish Nurses in 1937.

She became a member of the

Benedictine oblate due to being drawn to Benedict of Nursia and aspiring to follow his example and the message of the gospel in an effort to draw closer to God; she also wanted to fuse her faith with her work as merciful and charitable work.[2]

In 1940 during

United States of America
from 1946 until 1947.

In 1966 she was diagnosed with

Anointing of the Sick while she later lost consciousness on 28 April. Chrzanowska succumbed to the disease on 29 April 1973 in her apartment at 4:00am and the Cardinal Archbishop of Kraków Karol Józef Wojtyła – the future Pope John Paul II
– celebrated her funeral. On 6 April 2016 her remains were exhumed for examination and were reburied on 7 April at a celebration that Cardinal Macharski presided over.

Honors

Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice.
Order of Polonia Restituta.

Chrzanowska received two prestigious honors in her lifetime in recognition of her good works:

Beatification

The beatification process commenced in Poland on 28 April 1997 when the

Venerable
on 30 September 2015.

The next step was for a miracle to be attributed to her for her beatification. One such case was investigated in Kraków and was validated in Rome on 21 May 2010. Pope Francis confirmed this miracle in mid-2017 and was beatified in Poland on 28 April 2018.

The current postulator for this cause is Father Antoni Sołtysik.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Colours of Fire: The Life of Hanna Chrzanowska". The Am-Pol Eagle. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d "Venerable Hanna Helena Chrzanowska". Saints SQPN. 3 October 2015. Retrieved 27 December 2015.

External links

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