Totus Tuus - Totus 2us

Saint Zygmunt Szczęsny Feliński

_{Archbishop of Warsaw & founder of Franciscan Sisters of the Family of Mary
Born on 1 November 19822, in Voiutyn (then in the Russian Empire, now Ukraine)
Died on 17 September 1895 in Kraków, Poland
Beatified in Kraków on 18 August 2002 by St John Paul II
Canonized in St Peter's on 11 October 2009 by Benedict XVI
His body now lies in a tomb in St John's Cathedral, Warsaw
Feast Day - 17th September}

_{Vatican biography:
Blessed ZYGMUNT SZCZĘSNY (Sigmund Felix) FELIŃSKI (1822-1895), the son of Gerard and Eve Wendorff Feliński, was born in Wojutyn in the Volinia region, then part of Poland, but is now incorporated into Ukraine. Sigmund Felix was brought up in a devout and patriotic home. Even as a very small boy he venerated the Virgin Mary.
After studying mathematics at the University of Moscow from 1840 to 1844, Sigmund Felix went to Paris in 1847 to study French Literature at the Sorbonne and at the Collège de France. There he came to know many important Polish exiles.
In 1851 he accepted his religious vocation and entered the diocesan seminary of Żytomierz. He transferred to the Catholic Academy in St. Petersburg, Russia, where, in 1855, he was ordained a priest. At the Academy he was known as a zealous lecturer and confessor. Blessed with a sensitive heart, he commiserated with the unfortunate children who had been abandoned in the Russian city by their Polish exile parents.
He also pitied the sad lot of sick and lonely old men. Sigmund Felix’s personal history predisposed him to empathize with orphans and with the destitute. His father died when he was just eleven years old. When he was sixteen his mother was exiled to Siberia because of her patriotic activities on behalf of poor farmers.
Thanks to the grace of God, Sigmund Felix established the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of the Family of Mary in 1857, thus honoring both St. Francis of Assisi and our Holy Mother. The sisters dedicated themselves to the care of both children and of elderly and ill men.
In 1862 Pope Pius IX appointed Sigmund Felix as Archbishop of Warsaw. He brought about a spiritual revival in his archdiocese as he promoted religious and civil rights. Unfortunately, after sixteen months, Tsarist authorities exiled him to Siberia. There he suffered as an expatriate prisoner, but he provided a shining example of profound faith and unshakable trust in Divine Providence.
He lived in Jaroslav on the Volga River. There, for many years, people revered him as a saintly man. Those who passed his house would raise their hats and cross themselves, saying, “A saint lived here.”
After twenty years, thanks Vatican intervention, he was allowed to leave Jaroslav, but was forbidden to return to his archdiocese. Pope Leo XIII transfered him from the See of Warsaw to that of Tarsus. Archbishop Sigmund Felix Feliński went to Dźwinaczka in Galicia. Despite illness and his advanced years, he resumed all his priestly duties. He understood the importance of developing Polish education. He founded schools for rural children, entrusting the work to the Sisters of the Family of Mary.
When his life on earth was near its end, Providence took him from the tranquility of the countryside to Royal Cracow, where he died in the archepiscopal palace on September 17, 1895. The Polish nation honored him with a solemn funeral at Wawel. Archbishop Feliński provides us with an example of a life totally devoted to God and to God’s human children.
Today the body of Blessed Sigmund Felix Feliński lies in the Cathedral of St. John’s Warsaw. The great Primate Stefan Wyszyński characterized his restricted but fruitful life with the following words, “Enter the cathedral. ... There rests a man who was said to be a loser, but who is a victor”.
On August 18, 2002, Archbishop Feliński was beatified by Pope John Paul II at Blonia, Cracow. Through this event the Church gained a new intercessor and example to be followed by priests and nuns, by parents and teachers, and, particularly, by those who suffer and are persecuted.
The Grey Sisters of the Congregation of Mary’s Family devote themselves to service to the Church. Following God’s voice, the sisters worship God in prayer and by taking up apostolic activities in the spirit of evangelic love, and Fraciscan joy, in simplicity humility.}