Sister Helena Staszewska

Sister Helena Staszewska

Sister Helena Staszewska, a Ursuline of the Roman Union was born on July 30, 1890 in Złotczew, Poland.

Two of her Sisters (Blood-Relatives) also joined the Ursulines and died as Sisters in a “State of Holiness” (Sister Gerarda and Sister Andrzeja).

Sister Helena entered the Ursuline Convent in Krakow, Poland in 1921 when she was 31 years old (after previously looking after her Younger Siblings when her Parents both died) and worked as a Teacher.

As a teacher, she initially stayed in Kraków, and later held Managerial Positions in Siercza, Zakopane, Gdynia, Częstochowa and the Stanisławów (now Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine). In August 1939, just before the outbreak of World War II, she took over as Superior - her last post – at the Convent in Rokiciny Podhalańskie.

The Convent in Rokiciny Podhalańskie was close to the Slovakian Border and many People (Men, Women and Children – Poles and Jews – stayed at the Convent on their way to freedom from the Nazis.

She was arrested by the Germans on January 26, 1943 after an Interrogation in a Prison in Krakow she was sent to the Auschwitz Death Camp on February 26, 1943.

At Auschwitz she received the number: 38102 tattooed on her arm and worked at the Camp’s Tailor Shop.

Those who knew Sister Helena both at the Convent and at Auschwitz said she was always thinking and doing for others.

On July 277, 1943 Sister Helena died of Typhus at Auschwitz. She was 53 years old.

Sister Helena Staszewska was Beatified on June 13, 1999 by Pope John Paul II among 108 World War II Martyrs