Saint Who?
Saints Who Established Schools
Blessed Elizabeth Czacka
Foundress († 1961)Feast: May 19
“This work is for God and comes from God, it has no other reason of existence.” Róża Czacka was born in 1876. A member of a prominent Polish family, she received an outstanding education. However, she suffered from an eye disease, and at twenty-two a riding accident detached her retinas. Incurably blind, she was advised by her doctor: “You have the education. Take care of the blind people in the region, because no one does.”
For a decade, Róża devoted herself to learning the best ways to help the blind. She started the Society for the Care of the Blind in Warsaw, establishing a school, workshops, and a Braille library, as well as an orphanage. During World War I, she joined the Franciscans, taking the name Elizabeth. She then established a community of sisters, and set up the famous Center for the Blind at Laski.
Elizabeth was convinced that blind people could be fully functioning members of society and apostles to the seeing, and her own life was proof. During World War II, she worked closely with Blessed Stefan Wyszyński, then just a priest, to resist the Nazis. She died in 1961 and was beatified in 2021. Her community continues today, with schools in India, Ukraine, and Africa.
Father of Lights, through the prayers of
Blessed Elizabeth Czacka, grant light
to those blind in body or in spirit.
