By T.K. Wilson
Julia Ledóchowska was born in 1865 to a large aristocratic Catholic family. She was the fifth of ten children born to a Polish count and his Swiss wife, their family was known for their good works and all the clergy associated with their family. When Julia came of age, she received the call of God on her life to enter the Ursulines and work as an educator. After her father’s passing, the future saint entered the convent and worked tirelessly to raise these orphans to the best of her ability. Her former students spoke fondly of her and her efforts to help them learn. She always encouraged her students and nuns to always smile and look to Jesus as “flowers to the sun.”
Just before World War I, she was sent to St. Petersburg to open a girl’s school there. She had to go incognito, as Catholics were a persecuted minority. Upon the outbreak of the war, Julia and her students were expelled from the country as national threats. For a while she lived in Sweden and Denmark, then moved back home to Poland with about forty other sisters. With the help of Julia’s brother Vladimir, then head of the Jesuits, they formed a new offshoot of the Ursulines called the Ursulines of the Heart of Jesus in Agony. Julia passed away in Rome in 1939, just before the hideous march of the Nazis would sweep into her beloved Poland.
Following Julia’s example, let us work with a smile, despite all our struggles.
Sources:
LogoSophia Magazine 