The Basics: Born October 7, 1902, in Poland; died April 29, 1973, in Poland; to be beatified April 28, 2018; feast day, April 29; nurse, oblate.
The Story: While Hanna’s family was wealthy financially, they were poverty-stricken spiritually; her mother was Protestant, her father Catholic, and neither was particularly spiritual or religious. Nonetheless, Hanna learned much about charity and compassion from her mother’s parents, who did much to help children and others in need. Hanna’s own poor health also exposed her to other children who were not as well cared for.
After high school, she began caring for those wounded in the Russian revolution, and went on to receive formal training in both Poland and 
France. She helped to found the Catholic Association of Polish Nurses, and became a prolific writer and editor on nursing practices. During this time, she also became a Benedictine oblate.
As was the case with so many, Hanna experienced tragedies during and after World War II. Her father, a literary professor, died in a Nazi concentration camp; her only brother was the victim of the 1940 Soviet massacre of Poles in the Katyn Forest. Hanna became involved in Polish underground activities and provided her nursing skills to those in need. After the war, she directed a psychiatric nursing school until the Communists closed it.
After that, Hanna came up with an idea to organize nursing at the parish level, incorporating both spiritual and physical wellness, and went to discuss it with then-Father Karol Wojtyla (now St. John Paul II). He supported the effort, and so it began to spread.
For the final seven years of her life, Hanna struggled with cancer. When she died, it was then Cardinal Wotyla who presided at her funeral Mass.
Hanna’s Wisdom: “My job is not only my profession, but vocation. I will understand this vocation if I penetrate and assimilate Christ’s words: ‘I did not come to be served, but to serve.'”
What We Can Learn from Hanna: Our jobs–mother, daughter, sister, retail worker, CEO, nurse, writer, wife, doctor, lawyer, and so on–truly can be vocations if, like Hanna, we remember Him as we do them.
To Learn More About Hanna: Visit the site for her beatification and her home parish.
To Learn More About Other Women Saints and Blesseds: Come back next week, or consider buying my book, Sisterhood of Saints: Daily Guidance and Inspiration.
