Vatican May Consecrate As Saint Catholic Nun From Navahrudak

Sister Maryja escaped arrest and execution by the Nazis on August 1, 1943.

Pope Francis approved decrees of the Congregation for Canonization. One of them concerns the recognition of the heroism of Sister Malgorzata Banas, the only Nazarene nun from Navahrudak who survived the Second World War, reports the Belarusian editorial of Vatican News.

Sister Maryja Malgorzata was born in the Polish village of Klecza Dolna. At the age of 21, she joined the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth. She worked in Krakow, Hrodna and Warsaw. In 1934 she was sent to Navahrudak. During the Second World War, she worked in the hospital.

Maryja was the only one of the 12 Nazarene sisters who escaped arrest and execution by the Nazis on August 1, 1943. After the war, she found the place where the sisters had been killed in the woods and was present at their exhumation and reburial at the Navahrudak Farn Cathedral.

She understood her rescue as a sign that she had to stay in Navahrudak to take care of the cathedral and help people. She died on April 26, 1966 in Navahrudak. She was buried in the local cemetery.