Róża Czacka

Róża Czacka was born in Bila Tserkva in Kiev as the sixth of seven children to Feliks Czacka and Zofia Ledóchowska.[2] Her great-grandfather was Tadeusz Czacka and her uncle was Cardinal Włodzimierz Czacka. In her childhood she learnt how to play on the piano and also learnt how to ride horses. Czacka also became proficient in English and also mastered German and French; she also studied ecclesial and medieval Latin.[3]

Czacka suffered an accident while riding in her childhood that contributed to her becoming blind after she turned 22 despite numerous operations. Her doctors told her that there were no available options for her to recover her sight nor options to help her manage her condition since the Braille alphabet had not been available in Poland.[2][3] Czacka decided to make it her mission to help those that suffered from blindness but took a decade to travel throughout Europe (to places such as France and Switzerland) to discover techniques she could use in Poland and treatments available.[1] Czacka opened handicapped workshops in 1909 before opening up an educational institute for the blind in Warsaw in 1911 that became known as the Society for the Care of the Blind.

Europe ended up becoming a warzone due to the outbreak of World War I and this forced her to spend that time in Żytomierz where she considered founding her own religious congregation that could help tend to the blind. It was during that seclusion that she came to think of it as a spiritual retreat. Czacka joined the Third Order of Saint Francis in 1917; she assumed their habit and assumed the religious name of "Elizabeth" in honor of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary (patroness of the order) upon her profession into the order on 15 August 1917.[2][3]

The new religious returned to Warsaw on 28 May 1918 before founding the Franciscan Sisters Servants of the Cross in order to help the blind based on the Franciscan charism; she established the order on 1 December 1918 after receiving diocesan permission to do so and to welcome its first twelve aspirants. Czacka made Saint Francis their official patron due to her being a Third Order Franciscan. Pope Benedict XV learned about their work and sent them his apostolic blessing on 31 May 1919. It was around this stage that she befriended the apostolic nuncio Achille Ratti (the future Pope Pius XI). The two became close during their time while Ratti was the nuncio as he offered much support and counsel to Czacka; Ratti lauded her pioneering work since he strongly believed that this was a truly worthy apostolate that she had undertaken. In 1921 she unexpectedly was diagnosed with a cancer that prompted a successful operation to remove it on 6 August despite the seriousness of her condition at that time.[3] Czacka became the order's Superior General on 15 February 1923 after having relocated the center for the blind to Laski near Warsaw in 1922 since she had been donated several acres of land. The order through her direction also founded other schools that incorporated Braille in their teaching practices for the people attending.[1] In 1925, she received the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. Czacka adapted the Braille alphabet to the Polish phonetic system, with the results being approved by the then-Ministry of Public Education in 1934 for mandated use in all schools for the blind. The Nazis invaded Poland on 1 September 1939 and the attack saw her sustain injuries to her head to the point that she needed to have her eye surgically removed without anesthesia.[2]

On 12 May 1950, she resigned her role as the Superior General due to a severe illness that later led to her death on 15 May 1961 at 5:15pm.[1][3] Her remains were interred at Laski following the funeral Mass that Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński presided over. Her order had 183 religious in 2010 in places such as India and Rwanda. Posthumously, on 13 October 2009, she was granted the Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.

The beatification process launched after Cardinal Józef Glemp petitioned authorities in Rome to provide approval for the canonization cause. The diocesan process launched on 22 December 1987 before the Congregation for the Causes of Saints issued the official "nihil obstat" (no objections to the cause) edict on 8 February 1988; the diocesan process concluded in September 1995. The C.C.S. later received the findings from the diocesan investigation before validating the findings on 3 April 1998 after determining that the investigation adhered to their official guidelines.

In 2011 the postulation (the officials leading the cause) submitted the official Positio dossier to the C.C.S. for evaluation. The dossier highlighted her life and listed the reasons for her sanctification according to the cardinal and theological virtues. Theologians first had to assess and approve the cause before the cardinals and bishops in the C.C.S. made the final determination if it could go to the pope for his approval. Pope Francis confirmed her heroic virtue and issued a decree that named her as Venerable on 9 October 2017.[1]

Her beatification depended upon papal confirmation of a miracle (a healing) that neither science or medicine could explain. Explanations mean that the healing presented could not be considered a miracle for her beatification. The process to investigate a healing dating back to 2010 closed in Warsaw on 5 June 2018 before it was submitted to Rome for further assessment. The medical experts advising the C.C.S. issued their approval to the case on 9 January 2020. Theologians later approved this miracle on the fact that it came due to her intercession; the C.C.S. confirmed this that October. Pope Francis confirmed this miracle on 27 October 2020 that enabled for Czacka to be beatified; the beatification shall take place in Warsaw sometime in 2021.[1]

The current postulator for this cause is Monsignor Sławomir Oder.

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