Polish nurse Hanna Chrzanowska is to be beatified on Saturday at the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy in the Łagiewniki district of Kraków, southern Poland.

Cardinal Angelo Amato, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, will officiate at the ceremony as the pope’s delegate.

Born in 1902, Hanna Chrzanowska devoted most of her life to providing care and assistance to the disabled, chronically ill, lonely and abandoned. She also worked in nursing schools in Poland, serving as an instructor in community nursing.

During World War II, she worked, often risking her life, to help the homeless in Kraków, and took special care of orphans, including Jewish children, finding foster families and safe shelters for them.

She worked closely with Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, the future Pope John Paul II, in organising parish nursing in the Kraków archdiocese. She died of cancer on 29 April 1973. Her funeral mass and burial ceremony was conducted by Cardinal Wojtyła.

Last year Pope Francis declared that a miracle attributed to Hanna Chrzanowska had prepared the way for her beatification, which in the Roman Catholic Church is a step towards canonization, or being declared a saint.

(mk/pk) </s> A look at the holy life of an upcoming beata.

Hanna Chrzanowska, a Polish nurse who will be beatified April 28, was devoted to her vocation attending to the sick and suffering.

Like St. Francis of Assisi, Chrzanowska came from a privileged aristocratic family but decided to devote her life to the suffering souls in her midst. Her father, Ignacy, was a professor of Polish literature at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, while her mother founded a children’s hospital and was the director of the Warsaw School of Nursing.

Her parents were known for their charitable work, as Pawel Zuchniewicz’s Polish-language biography Siostra naszego Boga (“Our God’s Sister”) relates. The prominent Catholic journalist’s memoir details a life of Christian charity.

Chrzanowska decided to become a nurse in 1920 during the Polish-Bolshevik War, when she helped war invalids and attended a nursing course offered by the American Red Cross. In 1939, Poland was invaded by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Along with other professors from the Jagiellonian University, Ignacy Chrzanowski was deported to the Sachsenhausen Nazi concentration camp. Meanwhile, Hanna’s brother Bogdan was among the Polish reserve officers shot by the Soviets in Katyn.

After the invasion of Poland, Archbishop Adam Stefan Sapieha of Krakow formed the Civic Committee for Social Aid. Undeterred by her family’s losses, Hanna became an active member, according to the World Federation of the Catholic Medical Associations, helping to organize hiding places for Jewish orphans fleeing the Krakow Ghetto and secure new homes for Polish refugees coming from Warsaw after the city’s nearly complete destruction in 1944. After the war, Chrzanowska went to New York on a one-year stipend to study nursing. Upon returning, she published books and articles on family nursing and taught in nursing schools. She also started to organize annual retreats for health care professionals to the Marian Shrine of Jasna Gora in Czestochowa, much to the chagrin of Poland’s postwar communist government.

By the 1950s, Chrzanowska had settled in Krakow. Although before the war the Catholic Church in Poland played a leading role in charitable work (as it does today), under communism the atheistic regime sought to curb that role. Yet she defied the authorities and established a system of “parish nursing” in Krakow. Later, her friend Teresa Strzembosz would develop a similar system in Warsaw. By the 1970s, most parishes in Krakow participated in this system.

Parish nursing was a response to the fact that there were many sick, suffering people within a parish’s borders requiring medical attention, but their plight was invisible to most. Chrzanowska’s collaborators would come to the homes of these people and not only attend to their medical needs, but also clean their homes (many such patients were greatly neglected) and offer them company and friendship.

Initially, Chrzanowska worked alone. Eventually, nuns would help her, and, later, she succeeded in encouraging a growing army of university students from the student ministry at St. Anne’s Collegiate Church to volunteer and come to sick parishioners’ homes.

Chrzanowska stressed that volunteers would be obliged to form a close bond with those under their care and see them regularly. Her work and Christian charity has been detailed in Tygodnik Powszechny, a Polish Roman Catholic weekly magazine, by Father Adam Boniecki, who cooperated with her when he was in charge of the student ministry at St. Anne’s Collegiate Church.

Chrzanowska responded to all with love, even in the most difficult cases, according to the Polish version of the Aleteia website. Once, for example, she was called to attend to a paralyzed 93-year-old woman with a hole in her forehead, which was the result of cancer.

In developing parish nursing in Krakow, Chrzanowska was motivated, above all, by her faith. She was particularly drawn to the Benedictine charism of work and prayer, becoming a Benedictine oblate.

Reading the Vatican II document Lumen Gentium, which speaks of the role of the laity in the Church, greatly inspired Chrzanowska in engaging laypeople to actively seek out the sick and suffering.

She found a kindred spirit in Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, the future Pope John Paul II, who was then the archbishop of Krakow, who asked her to give a speech on the role of the laity in the Church during the synod he held to implement the Council’s teaching in his archdiocese.

With Chrzanowska’s help, Cardinal Wojtyła would visit dozens of sick Cracovians, preferably those in the most desperate conditions, in their homes each year.

Chrzanowska reached out to all the sick, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, exhibiting charity to all while not proselytizing. However, the loving Christian witness of Chrzanowska and her helpers led to many conversions.

For example, Sister Serafina, a nun who closely worked with her, attended to an atheist mathematics professor suffering from rheumatism, according to Zuchniewicz’s book.

“When will you start converting me?” he would ask sarcastically.

Over time, however, he became so impressed with her love and kindness that he had a conversion and asked to confess to a priest before his death. “There’s Kant’s philosophy, and there’s the philosophy of the Gospel,” he proclaimed.

Eventually, the nurse’s helpers and the sick they attended to formed a community. An annual retreat was held for the sick in Trzebinia; its participants looked forward to it all year.

When Hanna Chrzanowska died in 1973, the Carmelite basilica was crowded with mourners for her funeral Mass. The church was filled with wheelchairs with the many sick people to whom Chrzanowska gave hope, as well as the students and nuns who cared for them.

The funeral Mass was celebrated by Cardinal Wojtyła, who also gave the homily. In it, the future pope said: “Thank you, Hanna, for being with us. You are the embodiment of the Sermon on the Mount, especially the blessing that says: ‘Blessed are the merciful.’”

Although when most Catholics hear the word “vocation” they think of priests and members of religious orders, Hanna Chrzanowska shows that laypeople also have a vocation and that it can be no less heroic or saintly. </s> Vatican City, May 22 - Pope Francis at his weekly general audience Wednesday remembered a nun killed and decapitated in the Central African Republic on Monday. The headless body of Spanish nun Ines Nieves Sancho, 77, was found in the village of Nola near Berberati. "I'd like to remember with you," the pope told his audience, "Sister Ines Nieves Sancho, 77, an educator of poor girls for decades, barbarically killed in central Africa right in the place where she taught the girls to sew". He described her as "one more woman who gave her life for Jesus in the service of the poor. "Let us pray together," the pope told French-speaking faithful. The reasons for the nun's murder are unknown and no one has so far claimed responsibility for it. </s> VATICAN CITY, May 22 — A French-Spanish nun has been brutally murdered in a village in the Central African Republic where she taught sewing to young girls, the Vatican said today.

The 77-year old was found beheaded early Monday in the southwestern town of Nola according to the Vatican News website, while a bishop in CAR said her throat had been slit.

Pope Francis paid tribute to the nun today, describing the murder of a woman “who gave her life for Jesus in the service of the poor” as “barbaric”.

He called for those gathered in Saint Peter’s Square for his weekly general audience to pray in silence for her.

“Her attackers broke into her room on the night between Sunday and Monday and took her to the centre she was running for the young girls, where they beheaded her,” Vatican News said.

“According to a local member of parliament, the murder could be linked to trafficking in human organs,” the site adds.

A spokesman for the diocese of Burgos in Spain told AFP a bishop in the Central African Republic had described the state of the nun’s body.

“They cut her neck to the point of killing her, but they didn’t cut off her head completely,” he said.

The bishop said the motives for her murder were not known and “no terrorist organisation” has claimed responsibility for it, the spokesman added.

The bishop of the diocese of Berberati led the funeral for Ines Nieves Sancho on Tuesday, he said.

The vice general of the diocese of Berberati, Isaie Koffia, told AFP that the nun was murdered on Sunday afternoon.

“Strangers entered the back gate and dragged her into the bush behind the house to slaughter her. They did not take anything at all, they just came to kill her,” he added.

The nun belonged to the small congregation of the “Filles de Jesus”, or “Daughters of Jesus”, which is based in Massac-Seran in southwestern France.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez took to Twitter to express his “condolences and affection for Ines’ family” as well as for a Spanish missionary, Fernando Hernandez, who was killed on Saturday in Burkina Faso.

Hernandez, a 60-year-old member of the Salesian congregation in Bobo-Dioulasso, “was attacked by knives by a former employee who was fired two months ago,” according to the website of the Salesian congregation, salesianos.info.

He is the second Salesian to have been murdered in Burkina Faso this year. In February Antonio Cesar Fernandez, 72, was the victim of a “jihadist attack”, according to the website.

CAR has been struggling to recover from the bloodletting that erupted when former president Francois Bozize, a Christian, was overthrown in 2013 by mainly-Muslim Seleka rebels.

Armed groups, typically claiming to defend an ethnic or religious group, control about 80 percent of the CAR, often fighting over access to the country’s mineral wealth.

Thousands have lost their lives, nearly 650,000 have fled their homes and another 575,000 have left the country, according to UN figures as of December last year. — AFP </s> A French-Spanish nun has been brutally murdered in a village in the Central African Republic where she taught sewing to young girls, the Vatican said Wednesday.

The 77-year old was found beheaded early Monday according to the Vatican News website, while a bishop in CAR said her throat had been slit.

Pope Francis paid tribute to the nun on Wednesday, describing the murder of a woman "who gave her life for Jesus in the service of the poor" as "barbaric".

He called for those gathered in Saint Peter's Square for his weekly general audience to pray in silence for her. </s> A French-Spanish nun has been brutally murdered in a village in the Central African Republic where she taught sewing to young girls, the Vatican said today.

Sister Ines Nieves Sancho, 77, was found beheaded early on Monday according to the Vatican News website, while a bishop in CAR said her throat had been slit.

'According to a local member of parliament, the murder could be linked to trafficking in human organs,' the site adds.

Village MP, Jean Marque Djokou said that the beheading is likely to be for human organ trafficking because it took place in Nola, a village known for murder recurrences and cases of organ trafficking.

Pope Francis paid tribute to the nun on Wednesday, describing the murder of a woman 'who gave her life for Jesus in the service of the poor' as 'barbaric'.

He called for those gathered in Saint Peter's Square for his weekly general audience to pray in silence for her.

'Her attackers broke into her room on the night between Sunday and Monday and took her to the centre she was running for the young girls, where they beheaded her,' Vatican News said.

A spokesman for the diocese of Burgos in Spain told AFP a bishop in the Central African Republic had described the state of the nun's body.

'They cut her neck to the point of killing her, but they didn't cut off her head completely,' he said. </s> Image copyright AP Image caption Hundreds attended the funeral

Truckers sounded their horns across Poland as the first victim of the Berlin lorry attack, driver Lukasz Urban, was buried in his village.

Polish President Andrzej Duda and a German diplomat joined Mr Urban's family, friends and neighbours in Banie, near the border with Germany.

Mr Urban was shot by the attacker, who hijacked his lorry to kill 11 others and injure 48 at a Christmas market.

An autopsy report is not expected until early next month.

The assailant, a failed Tunisian asylum seeker who had pledged allegiance to so-called Islamic State, was shot dead by police in Italy days after fleeing Germany.

A presidential spokesman said earlier that President Duda would attend the funeral to express his "huge respect for Lukasz Urban who, in the eyes of many Poles is definitely a hero, a courageous person", the Associated Press news agency reports.

A letter from Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo was read out in which she described her "great pain and sadness" and expressed her sympathy with the victim's family.

Image copyright AFP Image caption President Duda (L) presented condolences to the wife (C), son (2nd R) and mother (R) of Mr Urban

Image copyright AP Image caption A bishop attended the funeral Mass

"Poles have fallen victim to terrorist attacks carried out by Islamic fundamentalists but the tragedy that happened in Berlin is unique when it comes to the ruthlessness and cruelty of the perpetrator,'' she added.

Polish truckers stopped their vehicles to show solidarity with their dead colleague, with some 120 expected to converge on Banie later on Friday.

Image copyright Opozita.com Image caption Mr Urban was in Berlin to make a delivery of steel beams

Family member Zofia Zurek remembered a "great guy" who had taken "excellent care of his family".

"We recognised his truck on TV, we knew it was him," she told AFP. "But until the body was identified, we had hope."

A bishop, Henryk Wejman, described Mr Urban as a man who had been open to others and conscientious in his work.

As Mass was ending, AP adds, President Duda bowed his head before the white coffin before approaching Mr Urban's wife and teenage son, then whispering to them, shaking their hands and kissing the wife's hand. </s> The bells of a brown stone church rang across a Polish village as hundreds of mourners gathered Friday to bid farewell to a truck driver killed in the Berlin Christmas market attack.

Lukasz Urban, 37, has been described as the first victim of the attack on Dec. 19 that killed a total of 12 people. He was waiting to deliver a shipment of steel in Berlin when his truck was hijacked by the Tunisian perpetrator of the attack. He was shot and his body was found in the cab of the truck.

Poland's President Andrzej Duda joined Urban's family, friends and neighbors, gathering with them in a church in the village church in Banie, near the border with Germany. Several other Polish political officials and a representative of the German Embassy to Poland were also there.

In a letter from Prime Minister Beata Szydlo, read aloud, she described her "great pain and sadness" and expressed her sympathy to Urban's family.

"Poles have fallen victim to terrorist attacks carried out by Islamic fundamentalists, but the tragedy that happened in Berlin is unique when it comes to the ruthlessness and cruelty of the perpetrator,'' Szydlo said.

A bishop, Henryk Wejman, delivered a homily in which he described Urban as a man who was open to others and conscientious in his work.

"His willingness to work and serve others won him the trust of other people and the openness to fellow man," Wejman said.

As the Mass was winding down, the president bowed his head at Urban's coffin. Then he approached Urban's wife and teenage son, whispering to them, shaking their hands and kissing the wife's hand.

The coffin was carried from the church and placed in a hearse, which drove it slowly through the village to a cemetery for burial, mourners walking with it.

Before the Mass, a group of truck drivers honked the horns of their trucks to honor Urban. </s> A French-Spanish nun has been brutally murdered in a village in the Central African Republic where she taught sewing to young girls, the Vatican said Wednesday.

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The 77-year old was found beheaded early Monday according to the Vatican News website, while a bishop in CAR who hails from the same diocese in Spain as the nun said her throat had been slit.

Pope Francis paid tribute to the nun on Wednesday, describing the murder of a woman "who gave her life for Jesus in the service of the poor" as "barbaric".

He called for those gathered in Saint Peter's Square for his weekly general audience to pray in silence for her.

"Her attackers broke into her room on the night between Sunday and Monday and took her to the centre she was running for the young girls, where they beheaded her," Vatican News said.

"According to a local member of parliament, the murder could be linked to trafficking in human organs," the site adds.

A spokesman for the diocese of Burgos in Spain told AFP a bishop in the Central African Republic had described the state of the nun's body.

"They cut her neck to the point of killing her, but they didn't cut off her head completely," he said.

(AFP)
Cardinal Angelo Amato, acting on behalf of Pope Francis, beatifies Hanna Chrzanowska in Kraków, Poland. Chrzanowska dedicated her life to helping the sick and homeless and had worked with Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, who led her funeral services before he became Pope John Paul II.