| Ursula Julia Ledóchowska | |
|---|---|
| Born | 17 April 1865 Loosdorf, Lower Austria |
| Died | 29 May 1939 (aged 74) |
| Honored in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Beatified | 20 June 1983, Poznan, Poland by Pope John Paul II |
| Canonized | 18 May 2003, Vatican by Pope John Paul II |
| Feast | 29 May |
Sister Ursula Ledóchowska (1865–1939), was an Austrian-born religious leader. She became a Roman Catholic nun and founded the Congregation of the Ursulines of the Agonizing Heart of Jesus. She is a prominent member of the Ledóchowski family.
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Born as Julia Maria Ledóchowska on 17 April 1865 in Loosdorf, Lower Austria to a Polish nobleman as one of five children. The siblings were born on the estate of their father, Count Antoni Halka-Ledóchowski. Mieczysław Cardinal Ledóchowski was a paternal uncle.
Due to financial reverses, in 1874 the family moved to Saint Poelten, where she and her sister attended a grammar school run by nuns of the congregation founded by Mary Ward. In 1883 the family moved to Count Ledóchowski's estate (Lipnica Murowana near Tarnów) in Poland. Count Antoni Halka-Ledóchowski died of smallpox in February 1885. The siblings' uncle, Cardinal Ledóchowski, assumed responsibility for them.
On August the 18th, 1886 Julia Maria joined the Ursulines of Cracow. The next year she got the name Ursula Maria. In 1904 she was elected as Mother Superior. In Cracow she opened an home for female university students, at that time a new phenomena. With a special blessing of Pope Pius X she went to St. Petersburg, where she worked to uphold the house Saint Catharina, thas was a house for the roman catholic polish youth there. She wore civil clothes, because roman catholic institutes were illegal in the Russian Empire. As the tsarist government oppression to Catholics grew, she moved to russian controlled Finland, where she translated prayers and songs for finnish fishermen, who usually were protestant. In 1914 she finally was expelled from the Tsarist Empire. In Stockholm she started a language school and a domestic science school for girls. In Denmark she founded an orphanage. In 1920 she moved back to Poland with 40 other nuns that had joined her in her mission. With permission from Rome she changed her independent monastery in Pniewy into the then newly founded Congregation of the Ursulines of the Agonizing Heart of Jesus. In 1928 she founded a religious centre in Rome. In 1930 she sent 30 nuns to female Polish workers in France.
Early May 1939 Saint Ursula Ledóchowska travelled to Rome, where she died on 29 May 1939, aged 74, in the Gray Ursuline convent, Via del Casalet, of natural causes. Her incorrupt body was translated to the Gray Ursuline motherhouse in Pniewy, Poland in 1989.
In 2003 the congregation founded by her counted about 900 nuns and 100 communities in 12 countries. [1]
She was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 20 June 1983 and canonized on 18 May 2003. Her sister, Maria Teresia Ledóchowska, was beatified on 19 October 1975 by Pope Paul VI for her services to the Catholic Church.