TO LOVE WITH A FREE HEART

While the Ukrainian war continues, the Polish people continue to help the many fleeing refuges.

Many people in this caring nation, who never lost their faith in spite of wars, are being considered for canonization. Declared venerable in May 2022 was the Polish laywoman, JANINA WOYNAROWSKA, a poet and nurse known for her dedication in caring for various types of infirmity, despite herself suffering from a serious physical impairment.

Janina was born in Piwniczna in Małopolska in 1923. Her mother died during a typhus epidemic and she was  adopted  by a wealthy titular physician, Colonel Kazimierz Witold Strzemię-Woynarowska, president of the municipal gymnastic society "Sokół", and his wife, Maria Jadwiga née Twarogi, member of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. The circumstances of her adoption are unknown. The family lived in Chrzanów, in a house known as the "white manor house", where charitable activities were carried out: meals for the poor, material and medical assistance was provided, all given freely with family warmth, and an  atmosphere of religion and patriotism. 

Her friend, Marysia Lubasz, remembered the moments of their childhood:

For every name day, family celebration and church holidays, Janina recited poems, sang songs and played the piano. Together, we decorated the armchairs with flowers and ribbons, on which her parents sat during these pleasant moments, also very happy. In the evening, guests would come to the living room and we played in the dining room.  Janeczka's cousin Leszek often came to Janeczka, she liked him very much, he knew a lot of games and he told the books he read nicely. In the summer we played in the garden adjacent to the house. And in the winter we used to go to the ice rink at “Sokół” on Sokoła Street. We both loved ice skating but the snowball games were nice too.

Janina was a sickly child, staying at home the first two years of primary school. Her education was interrupted at the outbreak of WWII.  Her parents then decided that they would organize secret classes in their home for several children.  

 Soon the family was ordered to leave the "white manor" and move to an apartment.  During the occupation, many girls were ordered to work digging anti-aircraft ditches, including Janina.

 At the end of World War II, in 1945, the Woynarowska family was allowed to return to their own, partly destroyed house. Shortly after, her father died. Janina started working at the Obwodowa Clinic as a junior hygienist, and after six months she was promoted to senior hygienist. On June 26, 1946, she took a nursing oath, and a year later she completed an additional course for employees of the Social Insurance Institution.

 In 1950 she obtained the state certificate of a registered nurse. She daily attended Mass and adoration of Christ on the Cross. 

 “In my life, Christ took the first place, He is everything for me (...) in the daily living of the faith that I took from my family home as the greatest treasure, the greatest good.”

 After World War II, she started working as a hygienist and then a nurse in Chrzanów. She participated in the life of the parish and belonged to the Living Rosary group. She combined deep religious commitment with social and charity activities as well as poetry.

 In 1961, she took annual vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, and became a member of the Secular Institute of Christ the Redeemer of Man in Krakow. Five years later, she made her perpetual vows in the hands of the Archbishop of Krakow, Cardinal Karol Wojtyła (St John Paul II).

 She collaborated with nursing and medical magazines: “Nurse and Midwife”, “Służba Zdrowia” and “Zdrowie” and graduated from the Faculty of Psychology and Christian Philosophy.

She worked not only as a nurse, but also as a social probation officer and spokesperson giving advice at the adoption center. She provided premarital and family counseling, organized leisure and retreat trips for sick, elderly and lonely. She founded the House of a Single Mother.

She suffered from progressive scoliosis, plaguing her since childhood, yet did not let that prevent her caring for others. 

On November 24, 1979, on a rainy and snowy Saturday, she died driving a car from Bochnia to Chrzanów together with doctor Emilia Szurek-Lusińska near Krakow's Pasternik, when their car skidded and hit a tree. The homily during the funeral Mass on November 29 was delivered by Bishop Jan Pietraszko from Krakow, with a large participation of the faithful. 

She did not give birth, but gave the Love
which she enveloped a helpless, orphan being for ever.
She invited into
her life, she shared her life - watching day and night with the readiness of tender hands.
The light of serene glances was distracted by the fear of a child's heart,
which ...
sings a ceaseless song - Mateńko ...  (Poem written at the death of her mother).

     STIGMAS

       To love with a free heart

       like a bird - all creation,

       to restore his Creator's mark

       not knowing hatred,

       jealousy

       the madness of possession,

       that everyone could become a brother -

       you have to let your hands and feet be pierced again -

       like on Calvary.