Today March 3

Today is the remembrance of Mother Angela Truszkowska (1825 - 1899), born "Sophie". Her life was everything she desired and nothing she planned. Drawn to the needs of the many poor and weak on the streets of her hometown in Poland, this upper-middle-class girl gave all the money she was given for treats to the poor beggars. Drawn as she was to love of the Lord and contemplation, she naturally desired to be a nun, but her parents, and especially her lawyer father Joseph, wouldn't hear of it. Rather than rebelling, she obeyed and stayed home, where she taught the younger children. Without knowing it, she was being prepared for her future -- as a nun! -- in education. She kept trying to enter religious life, but met yet another setback when her beloved father became ill. She began to nurse him -- and this prepared her for her future in nursing and in hospital administration. As she took him through Germany for his health, she had a profound mystical experience at the cathedral in Cologne which made it clear that her future was NOT with the contemplative orders she had been seeking. She was serene after that.

Still at home, she was allowed to bring in a couple of orphans -- sort of as a payment for her nursing and her obedience. And this, too, prepared her for her future as head of orphanages! The two were soon joined by four more, and then by so many more that they had to move to a new location, paid for by Joseph. Angela was joined by several other girls who wished to help. Their spiritual director suggested they take a habit, and soon Angela, a Third Order Franciscan, was applying for permission to found a new congregation based on the Rule of St. Francis. They were named the Felicians, in honor of the church of St. Felix, the church where they'd take the orphans each day for Mass or for a "visit."

So, Angela soon put all her talents to good use, running the orphanage, the school, and soon a hospital. And when the order got so large it could be split up, she got the whole contemplative branch she had wanted all along. She was head of both for awhile until the time of the popular uprising against the Russian occupation (they were in the Russian sector of divided Poland). The order was disbanded as punishment for hiding refugees in false walls (and even in garbage cans!) in the hospital, even though the sisters had aided the Russians themselves. "Friend and foe alike, everyone is our neighbor," Angela had said. The "active" sisters were forced into secular dress and the contemplatives forced to join the Bernardines -- with military guards surrounding the convent! Finally, Angela received the news that the sisters -- all of them -- could emigrate to the much more moderate Austrian sector. They rejoiced and continued their good work there, even sending some sisters to America to help the Polish immigrants. All of us third generation Poles are grateful. Mother Angela Truszkowska, pray for us.