Saint Franciszka Siedliska

Maria Franciszka Siedliska, CSFN (12 November 1842 – 21 November 1902), known in religion as Maria of Jesus the Good Shepherd, was a Polish Catholic nun who founded the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth in 1875. In childhood Siedliska was indifferent to her faith but after a local priest had converted her she became aware of a call to the religious life which her parents opposed. However the death of her father in 1870 enabled her to pursue her vocation. In 1873 she decided to found a religious congregation that received the blessing of Pope Pius IX before being established during Advent in 1875. Siedliska expanded her congregation from Rome to her native Poland and elsewhere, including Great Britain, France and the USA where she visited during her extensive travels. The beatification process for the late nun opened in 1941 under Pope Pius XII. She was declared a Servant of God, then confirmed as having led a life of heroic virtue. She was named Venerable on 29 April 1980 and in 1989 Pope John Paul II beatified her. Franciszka Siedliska was born on 12 November 1842, the eldest child of Szlachta members, Adolf Adam Siedliski and Cecylia Marianna Morawska, of Jewish descent, in Roszkowa Wola, Poland. She received a private education from governesses in a household indifferent to faith, until she met the zealous Franciscan Capuchin priest, Leander Lendzian, who prepared her for her First Communion on 1 May 1855 when she resolved to offer herself to God. She had met the priest in Warsaw at an event her grandfather was hosting in November 1854. Siedliska wanted to pursue a religious vocation around 1860 but her parents opposed the idea. Her father said he would rather see her dead than become a nun. In 1860 she moved with her parents to Switzerland then went on to Prussia and to France. Her frail health led her parents to seek treatment for her in Murano and Cannes before the family returned to Poland in 1865.