Her name might not be immediately familiar in the United States although — at least in Polish American communities — it should be. Blessed Angela Truszkowska, beatified in 1993, was the founder of the Felician Sisters, one of the major congregations of female religious that ministered in Polonian communities, particularly in the 20th century.

She was born Sophie Camille Truszkowska in Kalisz, Poland, on May 16, 1825. Kalisz, which lies about 125 west/southwest of Warsaw, is one of Poland’s oldest cities. It lends its name to the Statute of Kalisz, a document dating from 1264 that granted Jews in Poland protection against discrimination at a time when other European kingdoms were engaged in their forced deportation.

Blessed Angela grew up in a secure home — her father was a judge — in an insecure land. By 1795 Poland had been wiped off Europe’s maps, the result of aggression by Austria, Prussia, and Russia. In the hopes of recovering national independence, Poles had joined with the French, particularly Napoleon, who promised a lot but delivered little. While the area of Angela’s home had been carved out by the French as a nominally independent entity prior to her birth, Bonaparte’s defeat had restored the status quo. The region was turned by the Great Powers of the day into a Russian satellite. Some things in history repeat themselves.

Because Poland was essentially reduced to a vassal colony, her socio-economic growth was stunted. A Polish rebellion in November 1831 against Russian rule was put down brutally.

Of all the regions of partitioned Poland, the Russian zone was the most economically backward. Those factors, together with post-1831 repression, led to many people — especially women and orphaned children — living in poverty. While Angela came from a privileged background, she was a sensitive child who was aware of the suffering around her, particularly of young people. As evidence of the situation of the times in 19th-century Poland, remember that Blessed Edmund Bojanowski, roughly 10 years Angela’s senior, was likewise driven by a call to respond to that poverty and suffering as the founder of several religious congregations, including the Little Servant Sisters of the Immaculate Conception. They are also found in the United States.

While Angela sought to find her own vocational path, she first responded by her 20s as a lay woman to the needs around her by gathering orphaned girls and elderly women off the streets of Warsaw. Under the spiritual direction of the Capuchin Honorat Kozminski, Angela imbibed the Franciscan spirit and joined the Third Order of St. Francis, where she took the name Angela. But her vocation would go further. Inspired by St. Felix of Cantalice, a Capuchin contemporary of Philip Neri, Angela and her cousin dedicated themselves on the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lady, Nov. 21, 1855, to God’s service. The Felicians regard it as their founding. The Felicians combine both active and contemplative elements.

The congregation spread across partitioned Poland, working particularly with women and children, especially orphans. Their homes also became hospitals for the care of Polish soldiers wounded in another uprising in 1863 against Russian rule. (Poland finally regained her freedom in 1918.)

The Felicians came to North America, establishing themselves 19 years after their founding, on Nov. 21, 1874, in Polonia, Wisconsin. Father Joseph Dąbrowski, who later would found the “Polish Seminary” in Detroit, was then pastor in Polonia, about 100 miles north of Madison. He recognized the need for female religious both to teach and care for immigrant children.

The mass Polish immigration (the “immigration for bread”) that would lay the foundations of the Polish American community occurred from 1870-1920. Emerging Polish communities first built a church, then a school, and they needed teachers. Polish men working in dangerous professions like mines or unregulated factories could be killed at a time when there was no social safety net for their survivors. The Felicians stepped into this need in America, as they did in Poland. At their height, they’d have eight provinces in the United States and found institutions of higher education like Felician University in New Jersey and Madonna University in Michigan. Changes in demographics have now shrunken the North American Felician footprint to one province headquartered in Beaver Falls, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Blessed Angela, who dispatched five nuns to America herself, died Oct. 10, 1899.

The miracle for Blessed Angela’s beatification took place in the Diocese of Buffalo. Lillian Halasinski suffered from diabetic neuropathy, an incurable condition of the nerves — especially in the legs caused by diabetes — that causes extreme pain. A Felician Sister who brought her Communion regularly introduced her to the story of Blessed Angela, urging her to seek her intercession. Praying to her in early 1984, her pain disappeared and she was found to be cured. St. John Paul II beatified her in April 1993. She awaits a second miracle to be eligible for canonization.

The illustration is taken from Mother Angela: A Pictorial Life by Felician Sister Mary Casimir Tkasz. It is typical of pious religious art that was especially in vogue in that period, but it well captures the reality of Blessed Angela’s early life.

Here she is still dressed as a laywoman, relatively affluent in style, but ready to lead her charges in need to the two upper rooms she rented for their care. This young woman, in her prime, is followed by two older women (one with a cane) and five children. One child hides behind the second older woman (a mother?). The young girl on the right carries a bundle, probably all her worldly possessions; the others, less. The barefoot little boy reaches out a trusting hand to Blessed Angela. While these eight people are clearly visible, two more — a less distinct woman and child — follow at a distance.

The scene is clearly the late fall — perhaps November, the month of the community’s founding — and while Poles wax nostalgic about the “Golden Polish Autumn” — which is really true of September and October — by November it gets especially rusty and bleak. The last leaves of autumn combine with heavy raindrops.

Pope Francis, who took his pontifical name from Il Poverello of Assisi, urges Catholics to look to the “peripheries” which often can be found right down the street. Blessed Angela already heard that call more than a century and a half ago. The fruits of her hearing his voice and hardening not her heart have been found in many Polish American as well as Polish communities.

For more information, see here, here, and here.