150 YEARS OF THE NAZARETH SISTERS

In the footsteps of Blessed Frances Siedliska in Rome (33)

Sr. M. Beata Rudzińska, CSFN

Via Merulana (1877) – Lubowidzki Sisters

The most important event of the following year at the house in Via Merulana is the arrival of new candidates: Wanda, Laura and Felicia Lubowidzki. They came at the call of Fr. Leander Lendzian, their former confessor. Once again, God used this Capuchin in the work of creating a congregation of Nazareth sisters. Thanks to the Chronicle, which Laura – later Sr. Gabriela – begins to keep from the very beginning of her arrival in Rome, we have more and more information about the Nazareth community, as well as about the Lubowidzki sisters themselves. Their parents, landowning citizens, through a “confluence of unpleasant circumstances” lost all their property and moved to Warsaw. Then they lose their only son. The mother – Salomea, née Ignatowska – dies when the eldest Wanda is only 11 years old. The father – Adolf – passes away a few years later. Wanda, from the time of her stay at the Visitation Sisters’ boarding school, begins to think about going to a convent, but remains to take care of the sisters after the death of their parents. Laura and Felicia also do not think about having a family, although joining a convent at that time does not attract them yet. After completing their education, the Lubowidzki ladies set up a girls’ boarding house in Warsaw, from which they try to make a living. During this time they meet Mrs. Ashperger, a pious widow with two daughters. Let us now give voice to Sr. Gabriela, who, testifying years later in Frances’ beatification process, describes her first meeting with her as follows:

“It seems to me that I first saw the Servant of God in 1872. I and my sisters used to go to the private chapel of Mrs. Helena Ashperger, and our confessor was Fr. Leander. The Servant of God, having already known Fr. Leander before, who had a reputation as a speaker and a highly respected director of souls, when she came to Warsaw from her estate, would come to the chapel of the aforementioned Mrs. Ashperger (…). I would like to point out that it was Fr. Leander who prepared the Servant of God for her first Holy Communion. After making this acquaintance, we visited her once in the countryside, in the village of Zdzary. I and my Sisters made the best possible impression from this acquaintance; we assessed Frances as a godly, simple, humble person (…)”.

When Frances and Fr. Leander left for Rome, the Lubowidzkis lost contact with them. However, as Sr. Gabriela describes in the aforementioned Chronicle, they waited patiently, hoping that it was through Fr. Leander that God would show them His will. The occasion for renewed contact became Mrs. Ashperger’s trip to Rome with her sick daughter and Wanda Lubowidzka to recuperate in a warmer climate. Wanda returns to Warsaw with the conviction that she wants to join not the Visitation Sisters, but the Nazareth Sisters. She also brings back a letter in which their former confessor urges all three sisters to join Miss Siedliska’s work: “The cause I urge you to join is not a human creation, but it is a work of God alone (…). It is necessary to become participants in the cause of God and under the wings of the Blessed Virgin seek the salvation of the soul. And to this cause in an exclusive way God calls you and wants you to serve this cause soul and body.”

The Lubowidzkis responded without hesitation. Laura and Felicia arrive on May 13, 1877. Fr. Leander himself leaves for Vienna to receive them, especially since Felicia is still weak from her illness. The eldest Wanda still remains in Warsaw to finish “various business.” She joins her sisters a month later.

Pictures – CSFN Archives:
The Lubowidzki Sisters circa 1863
The Lubowidzki Sisters after joining the Congregation:
Wanda – Sr. M. Michaela
Laura – Sr. M. Gabriela
Felicia – Sr. M. Rafaela