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BL. ROSA CZACKA, VIRGIN AND FOUNDRESS - 19 MAY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MAY

Saints celebrated on the 19th of May

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BLESSED ROSA CZACKA, VIRGIN AND FOUNDRESS

Mother Rosa Czacka

Countess Rosa Czacka (Róża Czacka) was born on October 22, 1876 in Biała Cerkiew, in today's Ukraine. She suffered from progressive vision loss - despite the numerous surgical interventions that were performed on her, she went completely blind in her early twenties. Falling from a horse, which detached both retinas, had accelerated the process. 

Already in 1911, while living in Warsaw, the Polish capital, Rosa had begun caring for the blind there (at Holy Cross Church). Having recognized the full extent of lack of organized care for the partially sighted and the blind in Poland, she henceforth devoted herself to that need with heart and soul and all her strength. 

Rosa entered the Franciscan Third Order on August 15, 1917 - taking the saint's name Elizabeth (Elżbieta) - before founding her own religious congregation in late 1918, the Franciscan Sisters Servants of the Cross. This community dedicated itself to serving the blind and doing penance for the "spiritual blindness of the world." Rosa also started the Society for the Care of the Blind and the Centre for the Blind in Laski, which combined education, rehabilitation, and spiritual care. Furthermore, through her pioneering efforts, she adapted Polish phonetics into the Braille alphabet - a system that ended up becoming mandated in all schools for the blind since 1934.

Mother Rosa's work received approval from the apostolic nuncio Achille Ratti (the future Pope Pius XI) who praised her efforts as an exceptional apostolate. In 1950, she relinquished her role as the Superior General for her order (having held the post since around 1923), having to step aside due to her declining health. 

Mother Rosa wrote a lot; some of her writings relate her mystical experiences, for instance, how she became aware of how, in prayer, Jesus prays through us. In praying the Divine Office, "... the Lord Jesus gave me to understand, that in the Church's prayers it is the Lord Jesus Himself who represents the human race and that all who say those prayers should be so united with the Lord Jesus as to be the Lord Jesus' lips, and the Lord Jesus praying that Office with their lips. When I finished the Office, there appeared to me the lips of Jesus' Face, red lips on a very pale Face. In fact, I did not see the Face, only parts of the Face around the lips."

Mother Rosa went to her eternal reward on May 15, 1961.  Pope Francis confirmed her heroic virtue and approved a miracle attributed to her in late 2020. Mother Rosa was beatified in Warsaw on September 12, 2021.

Sources: https://borgiachicago.org/introduction-of-the-relics-of-blessed-mother-elzbieta-roza-czacka/ - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%B3%C5%BCa_Czacka -https://www.ncregister.com/blog/through-the-cross-to-heaven?amp

PRAYER:

May the intercession of Blessed Mother Rosa commend us to you, so that through her merits we may obtain that which we cannot accomplish by our own. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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