Ursula Ledóchowska
Ursula Ledóchowska USAHJ | |
|---|---|
Photograph taken in 1907. | |
| Born | 17 April 1865 Loosdorf, Melk, Lower Austria, Austrian Empire |
| Died | 29 May 1939 (aged 74) Rome, Kingdom of Italy |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Beatified | 20 June 1983, Poznań, Poland by Pope John Paul II |
| Canonized | 18 May 2003, Saint Peter's Square, Vatican City by Pope John Paul II |
| Feast | 29 May |
Julia Ledóchowska, USAHJ (17 April 1865 – 29 May 1939), religious name Maria Ursula of Jesus, was a Polish Catholic religious sister and the foundress of the Ursulines of the Agonizing Heart of Jesus. Ledóchowska was a prolific supporter of Polish independence which she often spoke about at conferences across Scandinavia while she settled in Russia for a time to open convents until her expulsion. But she continued to found convents across Scandinavian countries and even translated a Finnish catechism for the faithful there while later founding her own order which she would later manage from Rome at the behest of Pope Benedict XV.
Her death brought calls for a sainthood process to launch which would open 15 October 1981 (titling her as a Servant of God) despite diocesan investigations happening decades prior. The confirmation of her heroic virtue allowed for her to be named as Venerable in 1983; Pope John Paul II beatified her in Poznań in 1983 and later canonized Ledóchowska in Saint Peter's Square in mid-2003.