Blessed Sister Bernardina
Feast day: September 22
Maria Jabłońska later known as
Sister Bernardina was born on August 5, 1878 in Pizuny near Narol (county of Lubaczów, province of Podkarpacie region). She was raised in a loving, pious family. Maria had a very happy and cheerful childhood, which was suddenly disrupted by the death of her beloved mother. This tragedy dulled her joy of life for a long time and at the same time revealed her deep contemplation aspect of her personality. Maria decided to enter a congregation, where she could pray and perform penance.
During the church fair on the St. Anthony Day in Horyniec, Maria – then seventeen years old – met Brother Albert and was delighted with his personality and his style of life. She felt called to follow him. However, her family strongly opposed this idea, and Maria, according to the dictates of her conscience, decided to run away from home. In the summer of 1896, she joined the community of the Albertine Sisters in Krakow. After a six-month postulate, on June 3, 1897 Maria became a novice and assumed a new name , Sister Bernardina. Brother Albert said that she “had intellect and the heart.” Maria’s conception of a community of sisters devoted entirely to praying was so far from what she encountered in reality that she decided to leave the Congregation.
However, Brother Albert knew Sister Bernardina very well, as he was for her like a father, to which she often confided. Thus Brother Albert in his wisdom, when faced with spiritual crises of his spiritual daughter, he handed her a piece of paper with a short text to consider and sign.
“Act of surrender”
“I give Jesus Christ my soul, my mind, my heart and everything I have. I accept all doubts, inner coldness, torments and spiritual tortures, all humiliation and contempt, all pains of the body and illnesses, and I do not expect anything in return, neither now nor after my death, because I do it for love of Jesus Christ.”
It was after much prayer and consideration that Sister Bernardina did sign it, and was greatly inspired by this “Act of surrender”. Where it became the force behind many of her actions.
And it was this disinterested love for Christ that made Maria stay at the Congregation, finding her place there, praying, suffering and serving the neighbor. Brother Albert recognized her great gifts and therefore he demanded more from her than from other Sisters. In 1902, he appointed her Superior General of the Congregation, so-called Sister Senior, according to the Tertiary tradition. During her time of service, the Congregation flourished. New shelters were opened and the Albertine Sisters grew more and more in number. Sister Bernardina wrote down the Constitution, which assured the legal foundation of the Congregation by a decree signed by Archbishop Adam Stefan Sapieha on June 22, 1926.
Sister Bernardina died on September 23, 1940 in Krakow. At that time, the Albertine Sisters were in charge of fifty-six foundations and numbered about 500 sisters. Lingering illnesses and suffering would never leave her but she accepted them with humility and joy, offering them to God. Her religiousness and deep and full of absolute dedication to Christ radiated with love, goodness, reasonable sensibility and generosity upon other sisters and all those who came into contact with her. After Sister Bernardina’s death, she was held in high esteem and deeply respected. Her funeral was a great ceremony. Pope Saint John Paul II beatified her on June 6, 1997 in Zakopane, Poland.
The key relics of Blessed Bernardina are found in Krakow, Poland. In the Sanctuary Ecce Homo of Saint Brother Albert. They are at the left of the main altar.
“Be adored, O Great, Infinite, and Ineffable One!
I adore and bless You. I love and surrender myself to You, O most Holy One, whom I cannot fully know and comprehend.” -Blessed Sister Bernardina
Prayer In Honor of Blessed Sister Bernardina
(also a Novena Prayer)
Lord Jesus Christ, You in Your Graciousness deigned to form the heart of Blessed Sister Bernardina, after the example of Your Divine Heart full of love and goodness.
We ask You humbly deign to glorify Your devoted Servant who in her entire life, following Saint Brother Albert, performed deeds of Christian charity for the suffering and the most abandoned.
Through her intercession please grant me the favor of ….. for which I ask with trust, if it be in accord with Your Divine Will. Amen.
(Say one Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be…)
Blessed Sister Bernardina, pray for us!
(The text of the song was written by Blessed Bernardina)