Marta Wiecka’s life was short. She lived only thirty years, but that short time was enough for her soul to attain sainthood. A Daughter of Charity, she gave herself totally to God, serving the sick and suffering with a Vincentian spirit of humility, simplicity and charity.
| 1874, 12 January | Birth in Nowy Wiec, Poland |
| 1892, 12 August | Entrance into the Company of the Daughters of Charity |
| 1893, 21 April | Sending on mission to Lviv |
| 1897, 15 August | Vows for the first time |
| 1904, 30 May | Death in Śniatyn |
| 2008, 24 May | Beatification in Lviv |
| 30 May | Liturgical feast |
Marta Wiecka was born on 12 January 1874 in Nowy Wiec, Poland. She was the third of thirteen children in the family; her father was a wealthy landowner.
Since 1772, much of Poland had been divided and occupied by several powerful neighboring states. The region where the Wiecka family lived was under the control of Prussia, which attempted to suppress Polish national and Catholic identity through a Kulturkampf (fight for culture) program. The Wiecka family, like many others, was staunchly Catholic and Polish.
When Marta was two years old, she was very ill. Medicine could do nothing for her, so her parents turned to Mary. She miraculously recovered. All her life, Marta had a great love for the Blessed Virgin and often turned to her for help.
As a child, Marta cheerfully helped her mother with household chores. Family and friends know that Marta was a fervent devotee of Saint John Nepomucene. They often saw her standing in deep prayer in front of a roadside shrine dedicated to the saint.
On 3 October 1886, Marta made her First Communion. From then on, Jesus was the center of her life. Whenever she had the opportunity to attend Mass, she never hesitated to walk twelve kilometers to reach the parish church in Skarszewy.
At the age of eighteen, with her friend Monika Gdaniec, Marta left her beloved family to begin her life as a Daughter of Charity. The Prussian government had restricted the number of aspirants in the nearby town of Chelmno. Marta decided to join the Daughters of Charity in Krakow, so as not to leave Monika alone. On April 26, 1892, they were accepted as postulants at the Krakow Provincial House. The next step was entrance into the Seminary (Novitiate) a few months later, on 12 August.
On 21 April 1893, Sr. Marta was sent to her first mission at the Lviv hospital. She quickly acquired a reputation as a Sister who loved her patients and served them with great devotion. A year and a half later, on 15 November 1894, she was sent to the hospital in Podhajce.
On 15 August 1897, she made vows for the first time as a Daughter of Charity, sealing her commitment to serve God in persons who are poor.
In 1899, Sister Martha was sent to the house of charity in Bochnia. At that time, she had a vision of our Lord on the cross. He asked her to patiently bear adversity and promised that she would soon come to Him.
Shortly after her vision, the adversity that had been foretold came to pass. A deranged man, recently discharged from the hospital where Sr. Marta worked, began telling people that she was pregnant. Sr. Marta bore this insult with serene patience, relying entirely on God.
After the end of the Bohnia affair, in which Sr. Marta’s innocence was recognized, she was sent to serve in the hospital in the town of Sniatyn. She had the rare gift of helping people to be reconciled with God. No one whom she served died without receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation. For Sr. Marta, every one of her patients was equally important, whether Jewish, Orthodox or Catholic.
During a typhoid fever epidemic, a young man who was a nurse and a father had to disinfect the room of a patient with typhoid, which is not without danger. Seeing the man’s fear for himself and his family, Sr. Marta volunteered to take his place. This generosity cost her her life. She contracted typhoid fever and died on 30 May 1904 in Sniatyn.
To learn more about Sister Marta visit the website: www.martawiecka.pl
