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Today’s missionary hero is Maria Elizabeth Hesselblad, a missionary of our times who lived life to the fullest.
Maria was born on June 4, 1870 in Sweden, the fifth of 13 children and baptized into a Lutheran Church of Sweden.
In 1888, Elizabeth emigrated to the United States of America where she studied nursing at Roosevelt Hospital in New York City. After graduation, she did home health nursing, bringing her in contact with many poor Catholic Christians. Impressed with Catholic spirituality, she became a Catholic Christian in 1902. Her brother, Thur, later followed her into the Catholic Church.
After her entry into Catholicism, Elizabeth decided God wanted her to serve him as a Religious Sister. First, she tried to become a Carmelite, but she had to leave after becoming so ill that everyone thought she was going to die.
After her experience at Carmel, she made some pilgrimages and came in contact with the story of St. Brigid of Sweden. So, in 1906, she received permission from Pope St. Pius X to try to revive the Bridgettine Order which had flourished before the Protestant reformation. Her first attempts to create such an order were unsuccessful. So, she decided the new Bridgettines would need to be more active than simply contemplative. Thus, she decided that caring for the sick and working for Christian unity would be good tasks for her sisters. That worked, and soon others joined her in establishing this new Order.
In time, the Bridgettines (O.Ss.S.) began to serve in other nations, caring for the sick and poor. Sr. Elizabeth was also instrumental in saving the lives of many Jews during the Holocaust in World War II. As a result of her efforts, the State of Israel named her a “Righteous Among the Nations.”
Sr. Elizabeth died in Rome on April 24, 1957 and was canonized in 2016 by Pope Francis.
Saint Elizabeth Hesselblad’s feast day is June 4. She is a patron saint of the Bridgettine Sisters and nurses.
2 Comments
Thank you for sharing this wonderful person’s story.
I am sending this onto Hans. He will take it very personally also being an immigrant.