Dear friends,
God is gathering His chosen people. God, who is wonderful in His saints (Ps 68:35). And one of these saints is Blessed Marta. She remained faithful to God and loved Him above all things throughout her life. Through her service, we also see God’s work in her life and in the lives of those whom she served.
I believe and am convinced that Blessed Marta joins us today. She was born into a large family at a very difficult time (1874) for Poland, when the country had effectively been erased from the map of Europe. From her earliest childhood, Marta’s contemporaries observed that she wanted to help everyone—her parents, her schoolmates, and her neighbors. Thus, her desire to help others continued to grow and deepen in her heart. At the age of sixteen, she decided to dedicate her entire life to serving the poor and chose religious life in the Company of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul.
After completing her internal seminary there, Sister Marta was sent to the city of Lviv. She began her ministry in a hospital, where, alongside older sisters, she learned the profession of nursing. She quickly proved herself highly capable in serving the sick, a ministry that would remain her principal work until the end of her life. Another important aspect of this period was the way the sisters noticed the care and love with which she carried out her service. Patients themselves often testified to this by calling her not by her name, but “the sister who loves.”
We may ask ourselves: “What was the reason for Blessed Marta’s way of living and serving?” The answer is: her faith. Everything sprang from her deep faith and intimate relationship with God, whom she loved with all her heart and whom she longed to serve in the sick and suffering.
And what about our faith? What is faith for us? Perhaps it is merely a set of formulas we know by heart, especially for us priests and consecrated persons. Perhaps it is simply something everyone does, and so we do it too. Perhaps it is comfortable for us. Or perhaps it is a gift from God, a grace through which He draws us close to Himself to reveal who He is, so that this experience may enable us to embrace those who are in need. The way we experience God and the image we form of Him profoundly influences our faith. As we see in Blessed Marta’s life, faith is a grace, a gift from God, intended to lead us to Him.
These convictions probably inspired and encouraged the Blessed to help people of different nationalities and religious confessions, allowing them to feel that they were not alone but loved.
After some time in Lviv, Sister Marta was transferred to Pidhaitsi, where her name was changed to Susanna. At the time, no one paid much attention to it, because it was customary in the community that when several sisters had similar names, some would temporarily receive another name. How prophetic that name would become in her life was revealed by her next assignment: the town of Bochnia, which became the setting of Blessed Marta’s “Way of the Cross.”
When she arrived in Bochnia, nothing suggested the difficult trials that lay ahead. Already a qualified nurse, she was assigned to the local hospital and began her ministry there. After some time, two patients occupied the same room: an eighteen-year-old young man, a relative of the local parish priest, suffering from pneumonia, and a fifty-year-old man being treated for venereal diseases. As always, Marta showed kindness and attentive nursing care to both patients. One day, while waiting to take the young man’s temperature, she absent-mindedly sat at the foot of his bed because she was tired. This was enough to provoke a reaction from the older patient, who had long been attracted to Marta as a woman, though his feelings were not reciprocated.
Soon afterward, he publicly accused Blessed Marta of adultery and even claimed that she was expecting a child by the priest’s relative. As often happens, both then and now, such rumors spread rapidly throughout the town and surrounding areas. Thus began Blessed Marta’s “Way of the Cross.” No one seemed interested in discovering whether the accusations were true; they simply repeated them everywhere. Her reputation was almost universally slandered. Some people even placed cradles outside the convent walls, while certain patients left toys for children. The parish priest immediately asked the superior to transfer her elsewhere. In short, some inhabitants revealed their true character. Yet there was nothing new in the history of salvation.
What did Blessed Marta do in response? Admirably, she continued her ministry in the hospital with the same calmness, dedication, and love that had always characterized her, paying no attention to the insults. We may wonder what gave her the strength to endure such suffering. At the same time, we see what mattered most to her: glorifying with every action the One she loved above all else. She sought first to please God rather than human beings. The foundation upon which she built her life was her faith.
Only shortly before his death did the man who had accused her confess that he had acted out of jealousy because he was attracted to her and had been rejected. But this confession came almost a year after the slander. For nearly an entire year, she had to bear the burden of those accusations. After remaining there for a short time longer, Sister Marta was sent to a new assignment that would become the final place of her earthly ministry and the place of her heavenly glory: the town of Sniatyn.
When Sister Marta arrived there in 1902, Sniatyn was a border town. Today it is a district center in the Ivano-Frankivsk region. What she encountered there was above all a remarkable diversity of nationalities and religious confessions. Catholics of three rites—Roman, Byzantine, and Armenian—lived there. Among the nationalities were Poles, Ukrainians, Germans, Russians, Hungarians, Ruthenians, and Jews. As in our own day, relations among different groups could be difficult. Some considered themselves superior and looked down on others. Yet Marta went to every person in need without regard for social status or ethnic background. Through her service, she broke down the human barriers behind which we so often hide.
Jesus personally approaches those who suffer. He touches lepers, seeks the lost sheep, and sends us forth to teach all nations in His name. How can we do this? Blessed Marta’s example shows us: through Love and Mercy. Merciful and active love is not only God’s weapon against evil but also His language—a language understood by every human being. To love means to offer salvation. It is with this love that God has loved the world, especially humanity, His most beautiful creation.
Today we may have different attitudes toward the virtue of mercy. Some may say: “Just do what you can. How can we be merciful in such an evil world?” It is true that our world is not paradise. Sin entered the world through humanity. Yet what does God do? He shows us His mercy through His constant care and protection. In this way, He teaches us how evil can be overcome: only through love.
We often hear that justice can prevent us from being merciful and loving. But what do we mean by justice? Pope Francis, in the bull Misericordiae Vultus, answers: “To be just means to give each person what is due to him.” And what is due to every person above all? Love, because every person has already been redeemed by it.
Precisely because mercy is present in this world, each of us can experience God’s presence within it. Nothing speaks to the human heart—whether believer or non-believer—more profoundly than love and mercy. We can become collaborators in Divine Mercy and therefore collaborators with God Himself. What greatness for every human being: to help God.
Blessed Marta was such a collaborator, and this was manifested throughout her life. Her desire to help others experience the goodness of God was so strong that she willingly gave her own life for another person. This happened in Sniatyn during the second year of her stay there. After a patient suffering from typhus was discharged, it became necessary to disinfect the isolation room where she had been treated.
A young hospital orderly was assigned to perform the task. It was extremely dangerous because of the risk of infection, and the man, who had a young family, was deeply distressed. At that moment Marta approached him and offered to do it in his place. He agreed. She carried out the task, but the very next day symptoms of the disease appeared. She had become infected and died shortly afterward, at only thirty years of age, sacrificing her life for her neighbor.
Even the final days of her struggle with illness were a manifestation of her holiness. People from all the various social and ethnic groups gathered beneath the hospital windows. Each prayed according to his or her own tradition, language, and rite. What united them was their concern for the woman from whom they had all experienced goodness and love. This was what reconciled people who were otherwise so different.
Dear brothers and sisters, in a certain sense God has blessed us with the presence of Blessed Marta. Let us pass on that blessing to those who need it.
Is it possible?
Marta answers us firmly: YES!
And not only Marta, but also our beloved Lord God, who says:
“Be holy, for I am holy.”
“Be merciful, just as your Father in heaven is merciful.”
Amen.
