Countess Róża Maria Czacka (also known under religious name Elżbieta; 22 October 1876 – 15 May 1961) was a Polish religious sister who founded the Franciscan Sisters Servants of the Cross. Czacka had an accident in her childhood that later led to her becoming blind after she turned 22 despite the numerous surgical interventions that were performed on her. The next decade saw Czacka travel throughout Europe hoping to learn about techniques that she could use to help the blind; she adapted Polish phonetics into the Braille alphabet that ended up becoming mandated in all schools for the blind since 1934. Czacka entered the Franciscan Third Order in 1917 before founding her own religious congregation in late 1918 based on ideas that she had formulated since at least 1915. Her work received approval from the apostolic nuncio Achille Ratti (the future Pope Pius XI) who lauded her efforts as an exceptional apostolate. In 1950 she retired her role as the Superior General for her order (having held the post since around 1923) due to her declining health.
The process for her beatification launched in 1988 in her native Poland before it moved to Rome for further investigation. Pope Francis confirmed her heroic virtue and named her as Venerable on 9 October 2017 before later approving a miracle attributed to her in late 2020. This latter confirmation enabled for Czacka to be beatified in Warsaw on 12 September 2021.
Life Early life and education Róża Czacka was born in Bila Tserkva in Kiev Governorate as the sixth of seven children to Count Feliks Czacki and Countess Zofia Ledóchowska. Her great-grandfather was Tadeusz Czacki and her uncle was Cardinal Włodzimierz Czacki. The Czacki family of the Świnka coat of arms came from Silesia and were part of the Polish nobility. Many outstanding ancestors contributed to its importance, including Cardinal Włodzimierz Czacki, the secretary to and friend of Pope Pius IX and later advisor to Pope Leo XIII. Róża's father was the grandson of Tadeusz Czacki, the founder of Krzemieniec Lyceum, member of the Commission of National Education, co-author of the May 3rd Constitution and co-founder of the Warsaw Society of Friends of Learning. Through her mother, Zofia, she was related to Cardinal Mieczysław Ledóchowski. Róża had had five siblings. In her childhood she learnt how to play on the piano and also learnt how to ride horses. Czacka also became proficient in English and also mastered German and French; she also studied ecclesial and medieval Latin.
The Czacki family ensured that their children were very well educated. Róża received a thorough home education. In addition to basic school subjects, she mastered modern French, English, German, and Russian. She read French literature. Gifted with a very good ear for music, Róża took singing, dancing and piano lessons. She also went horse riding. The lessons were initially provided by her mother, but when Róża became an adolescent, governesses were hired. The Czacki family was wealthy, which allowed for the selection of appropriate teaching staff and educational activities. The parents required from their children considerable independence and self-discipline, and paid particular attention to virtues such as modesty and respect for the dignity of others, including those who were of lower social status. Róża's mother had a strict approach towards her children and tried to avoid expressing warm feelings.M. Wiśniewska, Róża Czacka herbu Świnka, imię zakonne Elżbieta od Jezusa Ukrzyżowanego FSK (1876-1961), in Słownik biograficzny polskiego katolicyzmu społecznego, pod redakcją Rafała Łatki, Warszawa 2020, p. 45
Blindness Since childhood, Róża experienced health problems. Eye disease, a hereditary disease, turned out to be a particularly difficult challenge. Additionally, she struggled because those closest to Róża refused to accept her progressive blindness. Both at home and beyond, Róża's parents avoided the subject of her disability. They concealed the problem even though the disease was making it increasingly more difficult for their daughter to function. Róża's paternal grandmother, Pelagia Czacka, was a very important person in her life. Róża owed her patriotic and religious upbringing to her to a large extent. She learned to read on her lap.Czerska, Maria. "Kim była matka Elżbieta Róża Czaska?", Katolicka Agencja Informacyjna, August 18, 2021
The turning point came in 1898, when as a result of falling off a horse, the retinas of both of Róża's eyes became detached. At the age of 22, she became completely blind. The time of hiding the inconvenient truth by her loved ones was over.
Róża's parents spared no efforts to restore her daughter's sight. It was hoped this would be achieved thought trips abroad to the most renowned ophthalmologists. These, however, proved fruitless. The breakthrough finally came when Róża turned to the ophthalmologist Bolesław Ryszard Gepner, who told her: ‘Don’t allow yourself to be carted from one foreign fame to another. There is nothing here that can be done, the state of your eyesight is quite hopeless. You’d be better off taking care of the blind, as they are not looked after by anyone in Poland’.Wiśniewska 2020, p. 46-47 Her doctors told her that there were no available options for her to recover her sight nor options to help her manage her condition since the Braille alphabet had not been available in Poland.
Róża decided to start her mission to help the blind through charitable work. She visited the patients of ophthalmic clinics, contacted doctors who could treat them and organized fundraising at Holy Cross Church in Warsaw. In this charity work, she was supported by her mother, whose approach to her daughter had now warmed. Róża came to the conclusion that her aid to those in need should not be limited to sporadic actions. She traveled to the West to learn how to organize institutional care for the blind. She found inspiration in the outstanding French promoter of braille Maurice de la Sizeranne.
Apostolate
After returning to Warsaw in 1910, Czacka opened and maintained from her funds a shelter for young blind women, where she taught them to read braille. These lessons started also being attended by blind males. The small center soon expanded its activities, and in 1911 it became the Society for the Care of the Blind, whose official status was confirmed that same year by the tsarist authorities. The Society ran care and educational facilities for the blind, including: a primary school with Polish as the language of instruction, a basket-weaving workshop for boys and male adults, a nursery for the youngest children and a nursing home for elderly women. In 1912, Czacka also established so-called ‘patronage’, i.e. organized open care of the blind. She instigated the transcribing of books into Braille. In 1913, she founded the first library for the blind in Poland. Due to the expansion of its activities, the Society moved its headquarters to larger premises in Złota Street.Wiśniewska 2020, p. 46
Czacka had her own concept of comprehensive aid for the blind, inspired by solutions that had been tried and tested in other countries. Róża drew attention to the fact that the blind suffer not only on account of their disability, but also due to ingrained social perceptions of their supposed mental and psycho-physical debilities. She considered it a mistake to exclude blind people from everyday activities or to keep them in isolation. Such treatment resulted in feelings of resignation, withdrawal, embitterment and loneliness. Czacka tried to combat prevailing stereotypes though education and the example of her own active life. By writing studies, various appeals and memoranda to representatives of the authorities she popularized knowledge about the blind. Her goal as an organizer of aid for people without sight was to provide them with maximal independence, enabling them to find their place in society with a sense of being useful and having their own dignity. Czacka felt this attitude should be instilled into children as early as possible, already at the preschool age. According to her: "All of preschool education is an essential foundation for comprehensive and professional instruction as well as for developing the correct attitude to the life of someone who wants to achieve maximum competence and independence". As for the vocational preparation of people with blindness, she drew on examples from England and Ireland, where effective vocational training methods for the blind had been successfully applied.
The work she had begun was halted by the outbreak of the First World War. Her Society struggled with serious shortages of food and other items essential for everyday existence. It was forced to limit its activities. Czacka left Warsaw for three years, 1915–1918, and moved to Wołyń (Volhynia). She settled in Żytomierz, the capital of the Łuck- Żytomierz diocese, where many inhabitants of Poland's eastern territories found refuge. Initially, she lived in the home of the habitless sisters of the Third Order of St Francis. She planned to found a new congregation whose major mission would be to serve the blind. Under the direction of her confessor, Fr Władysław Krawiecki, a lecturer at the Żytomierz seminary, she completed her individual novitiate. Róża took her vows and adopted the religious name of Elżbieta (Elisabeth). After the ban on wearing religious garments was officially lifted, she donned the Franciscan habit. In the spring of 1918, before the end of the war, she returned to Warsaw as a consecrated person.
In order to be able to receive candidates to the newly founded Franciscan Sisters Servants of the Cross (FSC), Czacka acquired permission from the Church authorities, namely Cardinal Aleksander Kakowski, with the knowledge and blessing of the then-apostolic nuncio Achilles Ratti, who later became Pope Pius XI. The accepted date for the official founding of the religious congregation was 1 December 1918. The charism of the Franciscan Sisters Servants of the Cross was the apostolate and paying penance to God for ‘the spiritual blindness of the world’. The congregation was open to blind candidates.Ellsberg, Robert. "Blessed Elzbieta Roza Czacka", Give Us This Day, Liturgical Press, May 16, 2023
The congregation's first spiritual director Father Władysław Krawiecki died in 1920, and he was succeeded Father Władysław Korniłowicz. In the first years of his ministry, Korniłowicz could not oversee the order's affairs systematically. Being at the same time the director of a boarding school and lecturer at the Catholic University of Lublin, he had to travel a considerable distance from that part of Poland to Warsaw and Laski. His broad intellectual horizons and numerous contacts, however, opened up new perspectives for the FSC. On his initiative, new institutions and centers were founded, including the Library of Religious Knowledge, a publishing house and the Verbum bookshop as well as a retreat house. From 1930, Fr Korniłowicz finally set up permanent residence Laski. University students and young intelligentsia were attracted to his so-called ‘Circle’. Some of them consequently entered the FSC or the Third Order of St Francis.Wiśniewska 2020, p. 47-48