Blessed Bolesława Lament

Bolesława Maria Lament (3 July 1862 – 29 January 1946) was a Polish religious sister and the founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Family. Lament worked as a seamstress and soon joined a religious congregation though left just prior to her profession upon experiencing vocational doubts; she returned to her life as a seamstress and worked with two of her sisters to support their siblings and widowed mother. The death of her seminarian brother prompted her to return to the religious life – Honorat Koźmiński encouraged this return – and she later founded a congregation that soon spread and took her to Russia though its revolution forced her departure during World War I. Pope John Paul II beatified Lament while in Poland in 1991. Bolesława Maria Lament was born in 1862 as the eldest of eight children to Martin Lament and Lucia Cyganowska in Poland. Three of her siblings died in their childhood which left profound scars on Lament caused profound grief for her. Two sisters were Maria and Stanislava and one brother was Stefano (c. 1881–1900). Lament was demanding in her childhood and often forced her will upon her siblings. She was schooled in an atmosphere of constant negation of Christian faith and she was often discriminated against due to her strong faith; she graduated with honors. Lament trained in the capital of Warsaw as a seamstress and returned to her hometown so as to open a tailor's shop with her sister Stanislava. In 1884 she decided to enter the religious life and so joined the Congregation of the Family of Mary and served as both a tailor and teacher in several of the congregation's houses across Poland in places like Odessa. In 1893 – prior to her vows – she questioned her vocation and left the congregation to return home. Back home she devoted herself to the care of the homeless and then moved to Warsaw – for about a decade – where she and her sister Maria opened another tailor's store to support both themselves and their siblings.