Blessed Hanna Chrzanowska, RN: A Nurse of Mercy

Before a nursing school existed in her native Poland, Hanna Chrzanowska chose to become a professional nurse. Her pioneering career shaped Polish nursing, serving to form countless students as she helped innumerable patients. Above all, Hanna was a committed Christian who followed the Gospel call to love and serve one's neighbor. With the help of hundreds of student volunteers, professional nurses, and committed lay and consecrated people of the Kraków Archdiocese, she established parish nursing in late 1950s Kraków and introduced homebound and disabled patients to retreats, home Masses, and re-integration into parish life. Blessed Hanna worked, closely with Cardinal Karol Wojtyla (Pope St. John Paul II). It was largely under her influence that, years later, as pope of the Universal Church, he designated the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes as the World Day of Prayer for the Sick. Her canonization cause was originally opened at the request of her nursing colleagues, who knew she was a saint. Blessed Hanna is the first lay registered nurse to be beatified.