SIEDLISKA, MARIA FRANCESCA DE

SIEDLISKA, MARIA FRANCESCA de. - In religion Maria di Gesù del Buon Pastore, foundress of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, born at Roszkowa-Walla (diocese of Warsaw) on Nov. 12, 1842, died in Rome on Nov. 21, 1902.

Though born into a family alienated from the Catholic religion, she grew up devoted to an intense piety, so much so that at her first

Communion she resolved to consecrate herself entirely to the service of God. Having refused the marriage proposed to her by her father and having overcome the most serious difficulties of health and opposition, she was finally able to establish her new Congregation in Rome, almost under the eyes and with the solicitude of Pius IX, on Oct. 1, 1873. This aimed at the specific purpose of engaging in the education of poor children in special schools; of gathering orphans in her own asylums, sheltering poor the sick in hospitals without any fee, and assembling girls and women in her own houses for spiritual exercises, doing so even in the missions. The houses multiplied rapidly, especially in Poland and North America, guided and animated by the frequent letters and visits of the foundress. The cause of beatification was introduced on Dec. 4, 1940.