IFTTT Autopost 
Ludwika Banas was born no April 10, 1896, in Klecza Dolna near Wadowice, a town southwest of Cracow. Ludwika’s parents provided her with a solid foundation in the Catholic faith as a child and youth, so it was not surprising that she was drawn to the religious life when she grew up.
Before entering the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, Ludwika worked at a hospital in Wadowice and got to know the Sisters who worked there.
Ludwika entered the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth on February 15, 1917, and made her novitiate year. She received the name Maria Malgorzata. After professing her final vows on July 31, 1926, Sister Malgorzata followed the custom of her order, that is, adding to her name a mystery of the faith. In Malgorzata’s case, it was “Heart of Jesus in Agony in the Garden.”
Sometime in the mid to late 1930s (biographies differ), Sister Malgorzata was assigned to the convent in Nowogrodek in eastern Poland (now part of Belarus). There, she worked in the local hospital as a nurse.
In the convent of Nowogrodek were twelve Sisters, and they did their best to serve the people of the town through the Nazi occupation day and then the Soviet occupation days.
On the evening of July 31, 1943, the Nazis commanded the Sisters to come to police headquarters. Sister Malgorzata was not with the other eleven Sisters at the time, for she was just finishing her shift at the hospital. As the eleven made their way to the police station, they encountered Sister Malgorzata who was returning to their house; she was wearing her nursing uniform instead of a habit. Sister Stella, the superior of the group, told her to return to the house and take care of the priest and the parish. Sister Malgorzata never saw the Sisters alive again, for on the following day, August 1, 1943, the Nazis took the 11 Sisters to the woods, shot them dead, and buried them in a mass grave.
Sister Malgorzata kept the church safe. During the turbulent times of Nazi and Soviet Communist rule, Sister Malgorzata lived in the sacristy of the church and helped hide the priest. She did what she could to keep the Catholic faith alive in the town and taught the children the faith in preparation for the sacraments of initiation. Sister Malgorzata also made sure that the Blessed Sacrament was always kept safe, and because of this, the townspeople called her the “Guardian of the Tabernacle.”
Sister Malgorzata faithfully served as the official Catholic presence in the parish for many years. She referred to her life as a spiritual martyrdom, and this was, for her, a slow death, something she desired.
When it was safe to exhume the Sisters from the mass grave, Sister Malgorzata and the community exhumed the eleven martyrs and made sure they received a proper funeral and burial.
Sister Malgorzata stayed in Nowogrodek as the sole keeper of the church and the tombs of the slain Sisters. Sister Malgorzata died on April 26, 1966, and in 2021, she was declared a “Venerable” of the Church.
