150 YEARS OF THE NAZARETH SISTERS

In the footsteps of Blessed Frances Siedliska in Rome (15)

Sr. M. Beata Rudzińska, CSFN

Karolina Załoziecka

The General Archives of the Nazareth Sisters in Rome holds a file of a dozen or so sheets of paper, stitched together with black thread in notebook form, written in careful French handwriting. This is a memoir about Karolina Zaloziecka, written down shortly after her death by Euphrosine Chaneÿ, a Sister of Charity who was not only a caregiver to the deceased, but also a warm friend. These memoirs are for us not only the only source of information about one of Francis’ first companions, but also give some facts about the beginnings of our Congregation. The memoirs, dated August 25, 1878, are dedicated to Father Leander.

Mrs. Karolina came from a noble family. After the death of her only daughter, and later her beloved mother and husband, the young widow of less than 40 years decided to dedicate the rest of her life to God. In Lublin, she met Fr. Leander Lendzian, the superior of the Capuchin monastery. On his advice, she “joined with several pious ladies to live among them, as if in a kind of community, where, under Fr. Leander’s guidance, they would follow a marked rule, practicing exercises and, above all, monastic virtues (…).” After a dozen years of such a life, in the autumn of 1874, Mrs. Karolina with Fr. Leander and persons whom Sr. Euphrosine does not mention by name, “bade farewell forever to this old Poland, where she had left part of her heart to seek religious freedom in exile (…). They settled first in Lourdes, hoping to establish themselves there, in the shadow of the miraculous grotto. “I do not know for what reason,” Sr. Euphrosine further writes, “they changed their decision and left Lourdes in January 1875 and arrived in Rome on February 6. Mrs. Karolina, afflicted with asthma and heart disease, was already in the hospice of Santa Maria in Cappella on March 6 and died there on August 8, 1878. Fr. Leander certainly visited his penitent, since Sr. Euphrosine met him and dedicated her memories of Mrs. Carolina to him. Perhaps he was also accompanied by Franciszka Siedliska.

Most likely, these recollections were unknown to Franciszka’s earlier biographers, who write that the two Tertiaries from Lublin, i.e. Mrs. Aniela and Mrs. Karolina, returned to Poland and died there.

The Hospice of Santa Maria in Cappella in the Trastevere district is an important place on the map of Rome. A church stood here in the 11th century, and was renovated in the 14th century by the father-in-law of St. Francis of Rome. Andreozzo Ponziani also built a hospital next to the church, where his saint daughter-in-law ministered for 30 years. In the centuries that followed, the complex of buildings passed into the ownership of members of the Doria-Pamphili family, who in 1860 decided to return to the beautiful tradition of the place and established a hospice, intended for foreigners in need of medical care.  Even now there is a nursing home for the elderly run by the St. Francis of Rome Foundation. In the nave of the church of Santa Maria in Cappella, which was always intended as a “hospital ward” for poor pilgrims, you can see today a reconstruction of a hospital room from the 14th century.

We will return to the person of St. Francis of Rome herself – the Patron Saint of our Foundress – in later posts. She is one of the saints best known and loved by Romans. It is worth learning about her life and walking Rome in her footsteps.

Photos:
Excerpt from the original memoirs of Sr. Euphrosinia Chaneÿ
Santa Maria in Cappella – Sr. Anita Jach CSFN