| Blessed Bronislava |
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Saints and Blesseds
Blessed Bronislava, Virgin
August 30
Bronislava was born around 1200 at Kamien in present-day Poland. As a young girl she expressed interest in becoming a religious sister, but her father stubbornly resisted. Bronislava was despondent until the Lord himself appeared to her with the reassuring promise: "Patience, Bronislava, you will become my spouse." She was finally permitted to enter the community of the Norbertine nuns at Cracow around the year 1219. Bronislava immediately faced the reality of the cross: she missed her mother, found it difficult to deal with so many women of differing temperaments, and adapted slowly to the austerities of the convent. But Bronislava managed to view all of this from the perspective of the cross and soon became a profound mystic. She identified so closely with the cross that one day, on a hillside by the convent, the crucified Christ appeared to her and said: "Bronislava, as my cross has been your cross, so, too, will my crown be your crown." In early Lent of the year 1241, Bronislava with some of her sisters were praying, with arms outstretched in the form of a cross, when they received the news that the savage Tartars were advancing rapidly towards Cracow. the convent was in imminent danger of destruction. Bronislava took up a crucifix, pressed it to her heart and said to her sisters, "Do not fear anything - the cross will save us." She then led the sisters to the subterranean passages beneath the convent where they successfully remained hidden from the invaders. The convent buildings, however, were not spared, and collapsed in flames, trapping the sisters underground. It is said that when Bronislava knocked three times with her crucifix on a rock wall of the dark prison, a passage to freedom opened for the sisters. After the destruction of the convent, many of the sisters took refuge in monasteries which had been spared. Bronislava remained in the ruins of the old convent with a handful of sisters, building little huts to sleep in and passing the days caring for the poor, the sick, and the countless victims of the Tartar invasion. It was the ultimate sign and blossoming of a truly cross-centered spirituality which expressed itself in solidarity with the suffering of others. The coonvent was never rebuilt in Bronislava's lifetime. She eventually succumbed to a serious illness while attending the sick, dying on August 29, 1259. She is the patron saint of Cracow, whose Cardinal Archbishop became Pope John Paul II in 1978. Bronislava is pictured with the crown of virginity, holding the cross, which was the center of her entire life and spirituality.
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, you filled the virgin Bronislava with with love for your cross and compassion for the suffering of others. May we, through her intercession, come to the glory of heaven through the mystery of the holy cross. We ask this through Christ our Lord. AMEN.
| Blessed Bronislava |
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Reprinted with permission of St. Michael's Abbey, Orange, California, U.S.A.
