An International Apostolic Congregation
A house like so many others along the streets of a small town, no different from its neighbours. Inside is a family. Joseph, a carpenter, is a humble worker, a just and noble man who provides for the Son of God and the Mother of God. Mary, the mother, is devoted to the concerns of the household. She taught the young Jesus to speak, took him to the Temple and prayed the Psalms with him. She trusted every word of God without reservation and treasured it in her heart. Jesus lived and worked in Nazareth for thirty years. Few people knew him. Within his family, in an atmosphere of peace and love, he grew in wisdom and age, doing the Father’s will.
Three hearts — those of Jesus, Mary and Joseph — beat in Nazareth with one rhythm: love, unity and the praise of God.
The Holy Family teaches us to trust God’s love in everyday life, regardless of how well we understand God or what happens to us. It also teaches us to respond to Love with love.
The Spirit of God revealed the beautiful mystery of the Holy Family in the life of Franciszka Siedliska.
In 1875, she founded the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth in Rome. She desired the Congregation to spread on earth the Kingdom of God’s Love that Jesus had brought from heaven.
Franciszka Siedliska, Mary of Jesus the Good Shepherd, was born on 12 November 1842 in Roszkowa Wola, Masovia, the only daughter of a wealthy landowning family. Her father, Adolf Siedliski, owned extensive estates. Her mother, Cecylia, was the daughter of Józef Aleksy Morawski, chief director of the Government Commission of Revenue and Treasury in Warsaw. She spent a happy childhood and early youth partly in Żdżary and partly in her grandfather Morawski’s palace in Warsaw. At first, the young Franciszka experienced a deep longing for a higher good, followed by fervent devotion. This was remarkable and attributable solely to God’s grace, given the family’s religious indifference. As she later acknowledged, “God was not the Lord in our home.”
She was raised entirely within her family and educated at home, as was customary among landowners at the time. Franciszka received a thorough and well-rounded education and acquired a good command of foreign languages and Latin. She devoted herself enthusiastically to music, for which she had considerable talent. During this time, she developed a heartfelt devotion to the Blessed Mother and sensed the Holy Spirit’s importance in her soul. Her First Holy Communion and Confirmation, at the age of twelve, were extraordinary experiences. Even then, she gave herself to God forever. From childhood, she considered religious life and, above all, continually desired to deepen her interior life and become ever more closely united with the Lord Jesus. Her twenties and thirties brought much spiritual and physical suffering. To reach the goal she already recognised as God’s will for her, she had to overcome many obstacles, particularly her family’s opposition. Her father, who saw his beloved daughter’s future happiness in a wealthy marriage, would not hear of a convent and drew her into the whirl of social life. Franciszka resisted with great courage. Her steadfast yet kind disposition overcame her father’s opposition and even obtained the grace of his conversion. The year 1873 marked a turning point: she could finally become a religious sister. She made her vows before Fr Leonard, but was surprised by the divine will revealed to her through her confessor: she was to found a new religious family. With approval and permission, she travelled to Rome to see the Holy Father and begin the work entrusted to her.
Having received a special blessing and even encouragement from Pope Pius IX, she was assured of God’s will. Despite every difficulty, physical weakness and lack of experience, she devoted herself to organising the new Congregation with all her zeal and characteristic energy. Yet she always regarded God as its founder and herself as a poor and weak instrument in his hand. She chose the Holy Family of Nazareth as the Congregation’s patron and model.
The first permanent religious house was established in Rome in 1875. Houses soon followed in Poland, France and England, and, from 1885, especially in America, where the sisters responded to the Church’s call to help their compatriots. Children’s homes, orphanages, hospitals and schools at different levels were established there.
The foundress chose care for the family and its religious and moral renewal as the Congregation’s particular apostolic mission.
Mary of Jesus the Good Shepherd died in Rome on 21 November 1902 with a reputation for holiness. Pope John Paul II beatified her on 23 April 1989.
Prayer through the intercession of Blessed Mary of Jesus the Good Shepherd:
Most Holy Trinity, we praise you and thank you for the example given to us by your servant, Blessed Mary of Jesus the Good Shepherd, in imitating the life and virtues of the Holy Family of Nazareth. Grant us the grace we ask through her intercession, for your greater glory, the sanctification of souls and the spread of your Kingdom on earth. Amen.
Blessed Mary of Jesus the Good Shepherd, pray for us.
As Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, we are called to spread God’s Kingdom of Love among ourselves and others, following Jesus, Mary and Joseph, whose lives were centred on love for God and one another. We bear witness to this love by giving ourselves completely to the service of the Church, especially its mission to families. We support families spiritually and assist them through educational work in kindergartens and schools, homes for single mothers and care institutions. Wherever we work, we seek to bring the atmosphere of Nazareth and, following the Holy Family’s example, create a home where the Kingdom of God’s Love reigns.
In all our houses, we pray for families.
Today, the Sisters of Nazareth pray and work in many countries, including the United States, Puerto Rico, England, France, Italy, Poland, russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Israel, the Philippines and Australia.
OUR ADDRESSES IN UKRAINE:
16a Perova Boulevard, apartment 13
Kyiv 02125
Tel.: (044) 5144804
nazaretkijow@tlen.pl
24 Dlouhy Street
Zhytomyr 10031
Tel.: (0412)511230