Blessed Hanna Helena Chrzanowska
Profile
Lay woman in the diocese of Kraków, Poland. She was the daughter of Ignacy Chrzanowski, a university professor, and Wanda Szlenkier, and while their industrialist and land-owning families had a tradition of charity, religious involvement at home was low since one side of the family was Catholic, the other Protestant. She attended an Ursuline high school. Helped care for soldiers wounded and injured in the Bolshevik revolution, then began studies at the School of Nursing in Warsaw, Poland in 1920; studied in France on a scholarship, and worked with members of the American Red Cross.
She became a nurse in a time when the profession was not as respected as today, and became a leading light in the field in her region. Instructor of the University School of Nurses and Hygienists in Kraków from 1926 to 1929. Editor of the monthly publication Nurse Poland from 1929 to 1939. Worked to help form the Catholic Association of Polish Nurses in 1937. Member of the Oblates of the Order of Saint Benedict. During World War II, where she lost her father to the concentration camps, Hanna organized nurses for home care in Warsaw, and helped feed and resettle war refugees. Following the war she became head of a nursing home where, in addition to the administrative duties, she cared for the residents and worked with nursing students. Director of the School of Psychiatric Nursing in Kobierzyn, Poland until the Communists closed it. She then moved into nursing the poor and neglected in her own parish. Fought with cancer the final seven years of her life.
Born
- 30 September 2015 by Pope Francis (decree of heroic virtues)
- 28 April 2018 by Pope Francis
- beatification recognition celebrated in the Sanktuarium Bożego Miłosierdzia, Kraków-Łagiewniki, Poland, presided by Cardinal Angelo Amato
MLA Citation
- “Blessed Hanna Helena Chrzanowska“. CatholicSaints.Info. 29 April 2024. Web. 15 May 2024. <>