At Rome, Blessed Maria Theresa Ledóchowska, virgin, who gave herself entirely to the Africans oppressed by slavery and founded the Sodality of Saint Peter Claver.
Lifespan: 1863–1922
Beatified: 19 October 1975 by Pope Paul VI
Memoria liturgica: 6 July
We must use human means, but place all our trust in God. As long as we remain poor, God will not let us lack for what is necessary; as long as we observe poverty, we shall also have the blessings of heaven.
She was born on 29 April 1863 at Loosdorf, in southern Austria, one of seven children born to Count Antonio Ledóchowski, of Polish origin, and a Swiss countess whom he had married as his second wife. Among her siblings, her brother Vladimir would become Superior General of the Jesuits; her sister Julia — Maria Ursula after her vows — was canonized by John Paul II in 2003.
Maria Theresa grew up contentedly in her large and prosperous family, leading a life that many would have envied. Gifted in music and painting, she attended the lessons of her elder brothers’ Benedictine tutor, and later enrolled in the Marian congregation of the English Ladies. The seed was sown, yet it struggled to germinate: Maria Theresa was too fond of fine clothes and worldly occasions. She was not foolish — merely still immature, a butterfly still in her chrysalis who loved art, theatre, and travel — but she never neglected attendance at Holy Mass, nor reception of the Sacraments.
The ways of the Lord are without number, and the path God chose to call Maria Theresa to himself was paved with suffering. Two experiences caused her to stop and reflect: smallpox, which not only took her father from her but left her disfigured; and an assault by a young man while she was out walking, which caused her genuine trauma and confined her to bed for weeks. It was then that something changed within her. As soon as she had recovered, she consecrated herself to God with a vow of chastity, then became a Franciscan tertiary, deepening in particular her devotion to the Passion of the Lord. But this was not enough for her. One day she met two Missionary Franciscan Sisters of Mary who were seeking funds to support their missions in India. It was then that she understood what God wanted of her.
Reading a lecture by Cardinal Charles Lavigerie, founder of the White Fathers for the evangelization of Africa, proved illuminating for Maria Theresa. To place her life at the service of abolishing the slavery still present on that continent would be her mission. She began at once by founding four anti-slavery committees in as many cities; she then composed a drama, Zaida, to spread awareness of the terrible consequences that slavery inflicted above all on women; she went on to found two periodicals — Echo of Africa for adults and The Little African for the young — always with the aim of raising awareness. She devoted herself to her vocation with such ardour that she was nicknamed “the madwoman of the missions,” and attracted a degree of malicious ill-will, as from those who alleged that she retained her title of countess for her own convenience.
The work multiplied quickly around Maria Theresa, and she began to nurture in her heart the idea of transforming all that she had accomplished into a religious institute, in part to give her work greater stability. She went to Rome to present her idea to Leo XIII. On her return, she began gathering young women under the Sodality of Saint Peter Claver, renting a house in Salzburg, whose bishop approved the institute in 1897. The congregation’s purpose was at last defined: to support the missionaries in Africa materially and spiritually, through prayer and Eucharistic Adoration. The institute received the approval of the Holy See in 1910.
Maria Theresa continued, tireless, her travels and the founding of new houses, together with the formation of novices. In 1921 she was struck by malaria, which would carry her to her death. More than eight thousand of her letters survive, written in Polish, Italian, French, English, and German. She was beatified by Paul VI in 1975.