IN TODAY’S LIVES OF THE SAINTS AND MARTYRS

Winchester, VA – Born in 1842 in Roszkowa Wola, Poland, Franciszka was the oldest child of Polish nobles Adolf Adam Siedliska and his wife Cecilia Marianna Morawska. Her early religious formation was lacking, but she came under the tutelage of a zealous Franciscan Capuchin named Leander Lendzian, who prepared her to receive her First Communion at 13. At her first communion, Franciszka offered herself to God, and in 1860, at 18, decided to become a religious. Her parents were vehemently opposed; her father said he’d see her dead before he’d see her become a nun. For ten years she moved around Europe with her family and her health suffered. In 1870, after her father’s death, she became a member of the Third Order of Saint Francis. Father Lendzian counseled her to start a religious order, and Franciszka received the apostolic blessing of Pope Pius IX upon her idea. On May 1, 1884, Franciszka made her solemn profession as a nun, taking the name Maria of Jesus the Good Shepherd, and founded the order of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth. The order spread quickly through Europe, into the United States, to Israel and Australia. Maria of Jesus the Good Shepherd died in November, 1902 of acute peritonitis. Blessed Franciszka Siedliska, pray for us!

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