Blessed Celine Borzecka

Celine Chludzińska Borzęcka (29 October 1833 – 26 October 1913) was a Roman Catholic professed religious and the co-foundress - along with her daughter Jadwiga Borzęcka - of the Sisters of the Resurrection. Borzęcka desired the religious life but married in obedience to her parents and bore four children; two died as infants. After her husband's death, she chose to follow the spiritual path with her daughter at her side and began a life in community in Rome. Borzęcka's beatification cause was opened under Pope Paul VI on 10 April 1964 and Pope Benedict XVI beatified her on 27 October 2007. Celine Chludzińska was born in Antowil near Orsha in the Russian Empire (now Vitebsk Oblast, Belarus) on 29 October 1833 as one of the three children of the rich land-owning Ignatius and Petronella Chludzińska; she was baptized as "Celine Rozalia Leonarda". In her childhood she considered a religious vocation in a convent in Vilnius but out of obedience to her parents she married Józef Borzęcki (1820/1 - 1874) in 1853. During their marriage she gave birth to four children but two (Marynia and Kazimierz) died as infants. Her husband received her help in managing their estate and educated her two daughters Celine and Jadwiga (2 February 1863 - 26 September 1906) at home. In 1869 her husband suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed. Borzęcka sought out the best medical treatment for her husband and so all moved to Vienna. Józef died in 1874 not before having dictated his will to the couple's daughter Celine and after which the widow travelled with her two daughters to Rome. In Rome she met the priest Piotr Semenenko who became her spiritual director. In 1882 she and her daughter Jadwiga - her daughter Celine had married at this stage - and two other women began living as a religious cluster. In 1887 she opened her first school where Giacomo della Chiesa (the future Pope Benedict XV) served as a chaplain.