Pope Francis proclaimed two new saints on Sunday: a Lutheran convert who hid Jews during the Second World War and the Polish founder of the first men’s religious order dedicated to the immaculate conception.
Francis called Swedish-born Elizabeth Hesselblad and Stanislaus Papczynski “exemplary witnesses to this mystery of Resurrection” during the canonisation Mass in St Peter’s Square. Poland’s President Andrzej Duda and first lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda attended the ceremony.
Hesselblad saved the lives of 12 Jewish members of the Piperno-Sed families by hiding them in the convent in Rome where she was superior from December 1943 until the capital’s liberation on June 4, 1944.
Israel’s Holocaust centre Yad Vashem bestowed on her the title “Righteous Among the Nations.” It said Hesselblad never tried to convert those she saved but instead insisted “that they say their Hebrew prayers and fulfil other obligations of their religion.”
Hesselblad, who was baptised in the Reform Church, migrated to the United States where she worked as a nurse and converted to Catholicism. She later moved to Rome, where she became a nun and dedicated her life to her religious order. She died of natural causes in 1957 and was beatified in 2000.
She is Sweden’s second saint in 625 years, following St Bridget, who was canonised in 1391.
Her canonisation comes ahead of Francis’s scheduled trip to Sweden later this year to mark the 500th anniversary of the start of the Protestant Reformation.
Stanislaus of Jesus and Mary, as he is known, supported hospitals and shelters for the poor and cared for the sick in 17th-century Poland. In his early years he himself experienced serious sickness and begged in the streets.
“Papczynski preached mercy and encouraged people to do acts of mercy,” the Polish episcopate said on its website.
His crowning achievement was founding the order of Marian Fathers, which preached the cult of Holy Mary.
Papczynski was born in 1631 to the family of an ironsmith in the village of Podegrodzie, in southern Poland. He had one brother and six sisters, and died in 1701.
Areas of Catholic Herald business are still recovering post-pandemic.
However, we are reaching out to the Catholic community and readership, that has been so loyal to the Catholic Herald. Please join us on our 135 year mission by supporting us.
We are raising £250,000 to safeguard the Herald as a world-leading voice in Catholic journalism and teaching.
We have been a bold and influential voice in the church since 1888, standing up for traditional Catholic culture and values. Please consider donating.