At Kraków in Poland, Blessed Bernardina Jabłońska, virgin, foundress of the Congregation of the Sisters Serving the Poor, who was ever solicitous for the poor and the sick.
Lifespan: 1878–1940
Beatified: 6 June 1997 by Pope John Paul II
Memoria liturgica: 23 September
The suffering of my neighbor is my suffering.
Bernardina, born in the world Maria Jabłońska, was born on 5 August 1878 at Pizuny, in the parish of Lipsko, in the Diocese of Zamość–Lubaczów.
At the age of eighteen, she entered the Congregation founded by the holy Brother Albert Chmielowski for the purpose of serving the most needy and abandoned. She secured the legal standing of the Congregation of the Albertine Sisters, Servants of the Poor, of which she is Co-foundress. Her life was rich in love for God and for her neighbor.
She showed a particular goodness of heart toward all the poorest.
She died on 23 September 1940 in Kraków, leaving to the sisters the counsel: do good to all.
On 6 June 1997, the Holy Father John Paul II proclaimed her Blessed at Zakopane during his Apostolic Journey to Poland.