Saint Who?
Saints Who Were Writers
Blessed Maria Theresia Ledóchowska
Foundress († 1922) Feast: July 6
Maria was born in Austria, the daughter of a Polish count and a Swiss countess. She enjoyed a comfortable childhood, pretty clothes, and an endless string of social events. All that changed when she was eighteen years old. Her father died of smallpox, leaving her family in poverty. Maria also became seriously ill from the disease, and she turned to Christ and his cross for comfort.
Maria initially decided to take a private vow of chastity. Later she became a Franciscan tertiary. When she learned about the practice of African slavery, she threw herself into efforts to abolish it, recognizing this as her life’s work. She established abolitionist committees, wrote a play to dramatize the injustice of slavery, and founded two magazines to educate others. Her efforts earned her praise but also ridicule.
As her work grew, Maria decided to establish an order of religious sisters who could serve as missionaries in Africa. With the pope’s approval, she and her sisters took religious vows. Maria gradually opened religious houses throughout Africa and published Bibles, hymnals, and dictionaries in African languages. When she died of malaria, she left behind a successful magazine, a growing religious order, and several thousand letters she had written in multiple languages as she sought to bring freedom to enslaved persons.
Lord Jesus Christ, help us to remember that you came
to set us free, particularly from our sins.
