As we begin our Novena tomorrow in preparation for the Feast of the Sacred Heart on June 28, 2019, we will feature Visitation Sisters who have especially loved the Sacred Heart of Jesus and promoted this devotion.
Of course we are quite familiar with St Margaret Mary to whom Jesus gave the revelations of His Heart and some of her French contemporaries
Here we will share about a Polish Visitandine who is rather unknown to many of us, Mother Teresa Szembekowna, of the Krakow and Vilnius Visitation Monasteries who lived from 1668-1724.
The youngest child in her family, she was already acquainted with Visitandines from the age of 14 and was prepared from the age of six to dedicate herself to God.
In 1686 she became a novice in the Krakow Visitation Monastery and in 1687 she made her vows in the hands of her Superior in the presence of the Bishop who founded the Monastery, Bishop Jan Małachowski.
Sister Teresa had a talent for maintenance and supervised various construction efforts at the Monastery and also showed leadership gifts, becoming assistant to the Superior, and then herself being elected Superior in 1705. She responded to the crisis of the fire at Vilnius Visitation by sending funds and removing her Sisters from Krakow when the plague erupted, later bringing them back. She also became Superior at Vilnius and then once again in Krakow.
She developed the cult of the Heart of Jesus In the monastery. For her efforts, Pope Clemens XI approved the Brotherhood of the Sacred Heart of Jesus at the church of Krakow’s Visitation Monastery: the members were many representatives of the elites of that time. The inauguration of the Brotherhood took place on June 6, 1718 during the ceremony in honor of the Heart of Jesus led by the Bishop. On this occasion, Sister Teresa funded an altar and a painting by Pawet Pieleszywlski “Adoration of the Heart of Jesus”according to the mystical vision of the Heart of Jesus of the French St. Margaret Mary Alacoque.
Sister Teresa knew Latin and French. Her translations of the French prayers and services, especially regarding the cult of the Heart of Jesus, were printed: it is possible that her work was a translation of the book of Henri de Maupas du Tour, “La vie du venerable serviteur de Dieu.”
She is also the author of anonymously published brochures on the Heart of Jesus.
After falling from the stairs on July 26, 1724. she became paralyzed and lost her speech.
She died on November 15, 1724 and was buried in the crypt of the Church of the Visitation in Krakow, Poland.