Blessed Zofia Czeska

Blessed Zofia Czeska, née Maciejowska, was a widow of Krakow who gave her fortune and her life to the education of poor and orphaned girls. From the house with a school for girls that she founded in Krakow grew the Congregation of the Virgins of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, known in Poland as the Presentation Sisters. Her memorial falls on May 15.

She was born in 1584 in Budziszowice, the third of nine children of an old noble family. In 1600, at the age of sixteen, she married a nobleman, Jan Czeski. Two years later she joined the Confraternity of Mercy at the Church of Saint Barbara in Krakow, founded by Father Piotr Skarga. Her spiritual directors there were Jesuits.

In 1607 she was widowed; the marriage had been childless. She was young and wealthy, and many suitors sought her hand, but she did not marry again. She decided to devote the rest of her life to works of mercy, above all to orphans and poor girls.

Between 1621 and 1627 she gave her house on Szpitalna Street and her own property to the House of the Maidens of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Orphans and girls from poor families lived and studied there, as did daughters of wealthier parents. As a model for the pupils and their teachers she chose the mystery of Mary’s Presentation in the Temple. A decree of the Holy See calls this house the first school of its kind for girls in Poland. In 1627 Bishop Marcin Szyszkowski of Krakow approved its statutes, and in 1633 the work was approved by the apostolic nuncio Onorato Visconti and by King Władysław IV.

She led the house as its superior and teacher and also secured a permanent income for it. The women who joined the community bound themselves by vow to remain in it until death. Queen Constance took the work under her protection, and the Jesuits supported it spiritually, so that the sisters were then called “Jesuitesses.” She drew her strength from a deep Eucharistic and Marian devotion and from trust in Providence.

She died in Krakow on April 1, 1650, with a reputation for holiness, after leading the house for twenty-three years. She was buried in Saint Mary’s Church, and her relics now rest in the Church of Saint John, beside the convent of the Presentation Sisters. Ten years after her death Bishop Andrzej Trzebicki of Krakow approved the community’s constitutions as a religious congregation. Today the Presentation Sisters run schools, kindergartens, and children’s homes.

The cause of beatification was opened in Krakow in 1995 by Cardinal Franciszek Macharski. Benedict XVI recognized her heroic virtues in 2011 and, in 2012, a miracle through her intercession: the healing of a nine-year-old boy in Krakow. The beatification took place on June 9, 2013, at Łagiewniki in Krakow; Cardinal Angelo Amato presided over it on behalf of Pope Francis. He recalled that she often said that whoever gives something to the poor gives it to Christ himself.