Zdenka Schelingová

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Statue of the blessed Zdenka Schelingová in the parish church of Krivá

The Blessed Zdenka Schelingová , born Cecilia Schelingová , (* 24. December 1916 in Krivá , † 31 July 1955 in Trnava ) was a Slovak sister of the community of the Sisters of Mercy of the Holy Cross and a victim of the Stalinist persecution of the Catholic Church in Czechoslovakia . She is venerated as a martyr , her feast day is July 30th.

Life

Formation and religious life

Cecília Schelingová was born to her parents' tenth child and grew up in a religious atmosphere. When the Sisters of Mercy of the Holy Cross came to Krivá in 1929, she experienced her vocation to religious life. In 1931, when she was 15, she asked to join the community. Before entering the novitiate in 1936, she attended a nursing school and received additional training in radiology . On January 30, 1937, she made her first vows and was given the religious name Zdenka .

1937–1940 she worked in a state hospital in Bratislava in the internal department , then in Humenné in eastern Slovakia and from 1942 back in Bratislava as an X-ray laboratory assistant .

According to the testimony of her fellow sisters, she lived continually in the presence of God and in loving devotion to all who met her, especially the sick.

martyrdom

After the end of World War II and the establishment of a communist regime based on the Soviet model, the Catholic Church in Czechoslovakia was systematically disenfranchised and oppressed. Any resistance was punished with severe penalties.

In early 1952, some imprisoned priests came to the Bratislava hospital for treatment. Sister Zdenka learned that one of them was supposed to be deported to a Siberian gulag for alleged espionage for the Vatican . She mixed a sleeping pill in the tea for the guard and helped the priest to escape. Then she went into the chapel and prayed: “Jesus, I offer my life for his; save him!"

A few days later, on February 29, 1952, she wanted to help three other priests and three seminarians to escape. However, the plan failed. She was arrested by State Security and interrogated, humiliated, and tortured for months . On June 17, 1952, she was convicted of high treason to twelve years in prison and ten years of deprivation of civil rights condemned.

After her pre-trial detention in Bratislava, she was sent to the Rimavská Sobota prison , then to Pardubice , Brno and finally to the prison hospital in Pankrác near Prague . Her body was so badly damaged by detention and torture that she was released in April 1955. Through the mediation of a friend, she was admitted to the Trnava hospital. There she was able to receive the sacraments again for the first time after years of imprisonment . She died on July 31, 1955.

Adoration

As early as 1970, the verdict against Zdenka Schelingová was posthumously overturned by a court in Bratislava and declared null and void. In 1979 her remains were moved from the cemetery in Trnava to the monastery cemetery in Podunajské Biskupice .

After only three years of trial, Sister Zdenka Schelingová was beatified on September 14, 2003 by Pope John Paul II during his visit to Slovakia. Her remains were ceremonially transferred to the monastery church in Podunajské Biskupice. Her relics are venerated today in 34 places in Slovakia, including the new cathedral of the Slovak Military Ordinary of St. Sebastian . A life-size statue of the blessed was erected in the parish church of her native Krivá.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Her father married her mother after his first wife died; the oldest child came from this marriage ([ Bola matkiným deviatym a otcovým desiatym dieťaťom, lebo otec bol druhýkrát ženatý, keď prvá žena mu umrela ( Memento from July 20, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ).]).
  2. ↑ a b vatican.va

literature

  • Sestra Zdenka . Bratislava: Lúč 2003

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Schelingová, Zdenka
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schelingová, Cecília (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Slovak nun, martyr and blessed
DATE OF BIRTH December 24, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Krivá , Slovakia
DATE OF DEATH July 31, 1955
Place of death Trnava