Celine Borzecka

Celine Chludzińska was born on 29 October 1833 at Antowil, near Orsha in the Vitebsk lands of the Russian Empire, a region that today lies in Belarus. She belonged to a Polish Catholic noble family; her parents were Ignacy Chludziński and Petronela, née Ottenhauz. Educated at home in the manner customary for young women of her station, she received instruction in languages, letters, and religion. Accounts of her youth describe an early attraction to consecrated life, which her family did not encourage. In 1853 she married the landowner Józef Borzęcki. The couple had four children. Two of the children died at a young age; among those who reached adulthood was their daughter Jadwiga, who would later share her mother’s religious work.

Józef Borzęcki suffered a serious stroke and remained paralyzed for years. Celine cared for him until his death in 1874, while also overseeing family and property concerns. After she was widowed, the long-standing desire for a more explicitly religious life reasserted itself. With Jadwiga she traveled to Rome and sought spiritual direction from Father Piotr Semenenko of the Congregation of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ, a community of priests founded in the nineteenth century by Polish exiles. Semenenko’s emphasis on the mystery of the Resurrection and on interior conversion became the foundation of their later institute.

In Rome on 6 January 1891 Celine and Jadwiga Borzęcka began the Congregation of the Sisters of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The sisters combined a life of prayer with educational and charitable works, including schools for girls and assistance to the needy. Celine was the first superior general. Communities were established in Italy and, as circumstances allowed, in Polish territories under the partitions, as well as in other countries such as Bulgaria. Jadwiga, co-foundress and her mother’s closest collaborator, died in 1906. Celine continued to visit and govern the houses of the young congregation.

She died in Kraków on 26 October 1913. The Catholic Church beatified her on 27 October 2007 during the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI. Her liturgical memorial is kept on 26 October. The Sisters of the Resurrection continue their work in several nations. Historical writing presents Celine Borzęcka as a widow and mother who, relatively late in life, became a religious foundress, and whose path illustrates both the constraints and the possibilities of women’s religious initiative in the Catholic Church of the later nineteenth century.