Saint Albert Chmielowski
Friar · 1845-1916
Religious brother, founder of the Albertine Brothers and Sisters, painter
Adam Hilary Bernard Chmielowski, also known as Saint Albert Chmielowski or Saint Brother Albert, was born on August 20, 1845, in Igołomia near Krakow, the eldest of the four children of Wojciech and Józefa. After completing his studies, he worked as a painter and sculptor, but he gave up his artistic career to devote his life to serving others.
In 1887 he founded in Krakow the Congregation of the Albertine Brothers, whose purpose was to help the poor and needy, including running shelters, caring for the sick and the elderly, and organizing courses for people with disabilities. He lived in the municipal warming house in Kazimierz, sharing his life with the homeless, alcoholics, and the destitute. He founded many homes for orphans, the disabled, the aged, and the incurably ill, and he helped the unemployed by finding work for them. He taught that one must be “as good as bread.”
He died in Krakow on December 25, 1916, and was posthumously awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. Brother Albert was beatified by John Paul II in 1983 in Krakow and canonized in 1989 in Rome. The saint’s relics rest in the Ecce Homo Sanctuary of Saint Brother Albert in Krakow.