Ursula Ledóchowska, Austrian-Polish nun and saint, founded the Congregation of the Ursulines of the Agonizing Heart of Jesus (b. 1865)
Julia Ledóchowska (17 April 1865 – 29 May 1939) - in religious Maria Ursula of Jesus - was a Polish Roman Catholic professed religious 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 caused a tremendous outpouring of grief across Europe in the places that she had lived in and had visited; before long there were 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.
1939May, 29
Ursula Ledóchowska
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Events on 1939
- 3Mar
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
In Bombay, Mohandas Gandhi begins a hunger strike in protest at the autocratic rule in British India. - 1Apr
Francisco Franco
Spanish Civil War: Generalísimo Francisco Franco of the Spanish State announces the end of the Spanish Civil War, when the last of the Republican forces surrender. - 6Sep
Nazi Germany
World War II: South Africa declares war on Nazi Germany. - 14Dec
Soviet Union
Winter War: The Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations for invading Finland. - 24Dec
Pope Pius XII
World War II: Pope Pius XII makes a Christmas Eve appeal for peace.