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Marie Epstein was born into a well-off family on August 2, 1975 in Pilica, Poland, though she grew up in Krakow. As a child, she was nicknamed Nuna and received a solid education. In fact, she knew several foreign languages and could play the piano.
After her parents died, Nuna put all her energies into helping people who were in need, such as the poor and the sick. When she was 20, Nuna joined a group of women devoted to caring for the sick and the poor, the Association of the Ladies of Mercy of St. Vincent de Paul. She even became president of the group. The work involved running a kitchen for the poor and sick as well as sewing clothes and providing needed material items for those in need. Five years later, she joined the Catholic Union of Polish Women in Krakow and organized reading rooms and cheap kitchens for the workers.
What Nuna became most famous for in her life, though, was her dedication to nursing education. Having been exposed to some basic first-aid work caring for wounded soldiers in World War I and caring for people in epidemics, Nuna knew that she needed more education. This led her to found the first school of nursing in Krakow in a renovated cowshed building given to her by the Daughters of Charity. The new school, called The Professional Nurses School of the Company of Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, opened on November 5, 1911. There were no professional nurses to head the new institution, so a physician became its director. As a physician, he had some knowledge of diseases, but he was not qualified in nursing. Therefore, Nuna became the actual head of the school while also being a student of the school. Nuna insisted that the students have a strong religious and patriotic background in addition to the art and science of nursing.
The school folded for lack of money, but with Nuna’s determination and abilities, she was able to obtain a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation and the new school was opened with the Jagiellonian University as the University School for Nurses and Hygienists in 1925. Nuna became its director.
On the last day of 1930, however, Nuna resigned the position as director and entered the Convent of the Dominican Sisters in Krakow. She was known as Sr. Magdalena Maria. There, she spent the next 16 years of her life. To the very end of her life, she was interested in the school and nursing education.
Sister Magdalena Maria Epstein died on September 6, 1947. On September 30, 2004, the archbishop of Krakow opened the beatification process for Sister Magdalena Maria. Therefore, she is now known as a Servant of God.
