Religious and Martyr, 1902-1941

Maria Teresa Kowalska was born in Warsaw in 1902; she received the habit of the Capuchin Poor Clares in the convent of Przasnysz on Aug. 12, 1923. The following year, on Aug. 15, 1924, she took temporary vows and perpetual vows in 1927. Despite the illness that afflicted her, she was always very affable with everyone. She was known for her spirit of prayer and industriousness. On April 2, 1942, the Germans raided the convent, arrested all the nuns, and transferred them to the Dzialdowo concentration camp. She died on July 25, 1941. She offered her sufferings to God to obtain the release of the nuns, who were in fact freed two weeks after her death.

She was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 13 June 1999 together with a group of 107 other martyrs of the Second World War.