Teresa Janina Kierocińska

Mother Teresa of St. Joseph (Janina) Kierocińska

Teresa of St. Joseph ( born Janina Kierocińska ) (born June 14, 1885 in Wieluń , † July 12, 1946 in Sosnowiec , Poland ) was a Roman Catholic nun in Carmel. She was a co-founder of the Congregation of the Carmelite Sisters of the Child Jesus and cultivated a special veneration of the most holy face of Jesus . She was named Venerable Servant of God by Pope Francis in May 2013 .

Life

Janina Kierocińska was born on June 14, 1885 in Wieluń into a patriotic Polish family who came from the local aristocracy. She was the seventh and youngest child of her parents. She received the sacrament of baptism a week after she was born. Until she was three years old, Janina remained silent until she spoke her first words after a pilgrimage to Jasna Góra . Her mother reported that her first word was "Jesus".

She attended school in her hometown. On the day of her first communion, June 9, 1895, Janina felt the need to consecrate her whole life to God and to go to the monastery. In her parents' home she led a life of prayer, deep devotion and renunciation, and love for her neighbor. During her youth she learned the works of St. Teresa of Ávila , which had a great influence on her spiritual life. After graduating from high school in 1901, she wanted to follow her vocation to religious life, but her family, especially her father, opposed it. After school she attended sewing courses for two years and her father tried to marry her off. Janina received all the applicants that her father had chosen for her, but in the end there was never a wedding. In 1903 Janina went to Warsaw and worked in a hospital of the Vincentian Sisters . After six weeks, her father sent her brother to take her home. She made another attempt to enter a monastery and in 1907 asked the Saint Bernard Sisters of Esquermes in her hometown for admission. But the sisters refused to accept her because of her parents' lack of consent and fear of her father. She returned home and helped her mother with the household and devoted herself to raising the children of her brother Franz Alexander, whose wife had died.

In 1909, on a pilgrimage to Czerna, she met the Carmelite Father Anzelm Gadek, who also became her spiritual guide. In 1914 Janina entered the Third Order of Carmel and took the name Teresa. After her father died on May 17, 1921, a short time later her mother gave her permission to enter a monastery. Together with Father Gadek, Janina founded an active and at the same time contemplative congregation of Carmel on December 31, 1921 in Krakow, the Carmelite Sisters of the Child Jesus, which was to take care of the upbringing of children. As Mother Teresa, Janina became the first superior of the new congregation. In 1922 the sisters founded a branch in Sosnowiec. In 1934 she was able to take solemn vows and now took the name Maria Teresa of St. Joseph.

She dedicated her whole life to the service of God and her neighbors, especially the poor and working-class families in the Upper Silesian coal region. She was affectionately called the "mother of the brazier" by the faithful. For 25 years, until her death, she led her sisters as superior and instructed them to carry out apostolic and charitable works for the poor in the spirituality of divine childhood. She cultivated a special devotion to the most holy face of Jesus, Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St. Joseph .

During the Second World War, she showed heroic courage when she saved many young girls from being deported for labor service to Germany by hiding them in her monastery. She helped refugees and soldiers, set up an orphanage, helped the poor and secretly taught them. She also looked after prisoners from the Auschwitz concentration camp in secret. In 1992 she was honored by the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial with the title "Righteous Among the Nations" for her commitment to protecting Jewish refugees .

After the Second World War, Mother Teresa of St. Joseph engaged in many new tasks for the Church in Poland. The Sisters of the Congregation taught catechism in schools, ran kindergartens and did charitable work.

Her deep connection with God was evident in her generous charity, ready for every service. All her life she cultivated the spiritual spirit of prayer and Carmelite self-renunciation.

On July 12, 1946, she died in Sosnowiec from a purulent inflammation of the peritoneum. The funeral ceremony took place in Sosnowiec Cathedral on July 15, 1946, and she was buried in the city's cemetery. On March 31, 1982, her body was exhumed and buried in the monastery church of her congregation in Sosnowiec.

Grave in the monastery church of Sosnowiec

Aftermath

After a preliminary diocesan investigation, the process of beatification was conducted from 1983 to 1988 at the Congregation for the Causes of Saints . During the Pope's visit to Sosnowiec in June 1999, Pope John Paul II remembered Mother Teresa of St. Joseph. On May 2, 2013, Pope Francis signed the decree conferring the title Venerable Servant of God .

literature

• Sr. M. Theresia O.Carm .: Carmel in the past and present. Holy Carmelites. Sr. Maria of St. Peter. In: Carmel Voices. Volume 24, Issues 8–11, 1957.

Web links

• Short biography on the website of the Diocese of Augsburg
• Entry on heiligenlexikon.de
• Blog about Teresa Janina Kierocińska (Polish)
• Homepage of the Carmel Sisters of the Child Jesus (Polish)