Sr. Mary Stella (Adela Mardosewicz)

She was born on December 14th, 1888 to a relatively well-off family in the village Ciasnówka in the Nieśwież district, then under Russian rule in Russia Minsk Governorate. Because Russian language use was compulsory in offices and schools (which changed somewhat in 1905), Adela for four years attended a Russia-influenced school in Kiemielnice. After the death of her mother, she was taken in by a relative with whose financial and logistical support she finished the teacher training college of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth in Vilnius. The college, which trained public school teachers, functioned secretly. The Sisters were barred from officially teaching such topics by the Russian authorities. They presented themselves as lay persons to set up a weaving school and under this cover conducted teacher training. Adela Mardosewicz earned her degree in those difficult, undercover conditions. She joined the congregation at the age of twenty-two despite a serious obstacle, a heart defect. Mother Laureta Lubowidzka decided: “Not only healthy Sisters are needed in the Community,” memoir of S. Speranza, AG CSFN). After completing her postulancy in Vilnius she left for her novitiate in Italy. After making her first vows in August of 1913 she returned to Poland. Until 1920 she lived in Częstochowa, from where she was sent for a short time (May to July, 1918) to Kalisz, to learn about the organization of a Nazareth school. She then again traveled to Italy, where in 1921 she made her perpetual vows taking the “mystery”- the Most Holy Sacrament. Upon return she worked in a number of the congregation’s houses: in Częstochowa (twice), Kraków (twice), Wadowice, and Stryj. In those houses she played numerous roles: a house mother in the dormitories, financial manager, sacristan, and embroiderer. She arrived at her last assignment in Nowogrodek probably in the fall of 1936. Until September of 1939 she worked as a house mother in a dormitory, a financial manager, and a nurse. Sister Stella at that time became known first and foremost as a person full of faith and love for God and for her brothers and sisters. Sister Veritas noted: “She was the mirror of the soul of Mother Foundress” (AG CSFN). She cared not only for her pupils but also for the poor people of Nowogrodek.