Edmund Bojanowski

Edmund Bojanowski ( born November 14, 1814 Grabonóg; † August 7, 1871 in Górka Duchowna ) was the founder of the Congregation of Handmaids of Mary of the Immaculate Conception, he built several children, the sick and the poor homes. He was a representative of the holistic, physical and mental, and spiritual education with the primacy of religious education. In 1999, he was beatified.

Life

His father, Walenty Bojanowski, was landowner in Grabonóg, Placzkowo and Bojanowo and came from a Silesian noble family. His mother Theresa came from the influential family Uminski. Edmund grew up with his half-brother, Theophil Wilkonski in a harmonious family, in 1825 moved them after Placzkowo. His poor health prevented to attend a public school, so that he was taught by private tutors. His apprehension was great, so he got to within five years of the basics of literature and the history of Poland. Even during this time has developed a strong social embossed with Edmund interest and fostered the desire to help people in poverty and distress. In 1832 just 18 years old, he began a philosophical studies at the University of Breslau. In 1834, his mother and his father died in 1836, the loss of his parents hit him hard so that his health deteriorated. He pulled yet to Berlin and studied at the local university literature, psychology, aesthetics, philosophy and art history. In 1839 he had to cancel for health reasons the study and returned to Grabonóg, where he lived with his half-brother and sat down during a cholera epidemic as a great helper. After the sale of the goods Grabonóg Bojanowski first moved to Poznan and then to Gniezno, where he entered the seminary. Again, he was held by his illness from studying, he left a year later the seminary and returned to his home village. The last months of his life Bojanowski in the rectory of his friend in Gorka Duchowna. On the evening of 7 August 1871 Edmund Bojanowski died of his years and serious illness. He was buried in the crypt in Lubon.

Edmund Bojanowski was beatified in Warsaw by Pope John Paul II on 13 June 1999, his feast day is August 7th.

His life's work

After the aborted seminary, he returned to Grabonóg. Here he founded the village " custodial " with the goal of caring to look after them in moral and material terms for the children. As carers he recruited girls from the village communities who lived in a group of three carers in a similar residential community orden. This then became the base for the formation of the " Sisters of the Immaculate Conception." Bojanowski gave her life a medal moderating style, wrote a rule for them and presented their work especially under the protection of the Virgin Mary. On May 3, 1850, the first religious house was built at the same time, he opened the "House of Mercy", this consisted of: an orphanage, a pharmacy for the poor and a library. At his death, the Congregation counted 22 houses with 98 sisters. 2009, another " window of life of Blessed Edmund Bojanowski " was inaugurated in Czestochowa. With this facility, newborns should be saved, and will be issued therefore by the Sisters.