Ursula Ledóchowska

Life & Legacy

Julia Ledóchowska, USAHJ (17 April 1865 – 29 May 1939), in religion Maria Ursula of Jesus, was a Polish Catholic religious sister who founded the Ursulines of the Agonizing Heart of Jesus.
Ledóchowska was a prolific supporter of Polish independence which she often spoke about at conferences across Scandinavia while she settled in Russia for a time to open convents until her expulsion. She continued to found convents across Scandinavian countries and even translated a Finnish catechism. She later founded her order, which she managed from Rome at the behest of Pope Benedict XV.
Her death brought calls for a sainthood process, which was opened in 1981 despite diocesan investigations happening decades prior. The confirmation of her heroic virtue allowed for her to be named as Venerable in 1983; Pope John Paul II beatified her in Poznań in 1983 and later canonized her in Saint Peter's Square in 2003.