CZARTORYSKA Maria Cecylia née Grocholski, in religious life Sister Maria Ksawera of Jesus (1833-1928) – religious activist. She was born on 29.XI. in Piatnyczany, Vinnytsia district. She was the daughter of Henryk and → Ksawera née Brzozowski, Sister of → Stanisław and → Tadeusz Grocholski. She studied at the Sacre Coeur sisters’ boarding school in Lviv and the Sacred Heart boarding school in Turin.
З0.X. 1851 she married in Paris the son of → A. E. Czartoryski, Witold. “Good, full of charm […], she became an ornament of Parisian salons” (p. 27***). Together with her husband, who had poor health, she traveled to various resorts, traveling in the Middle East, particularly spending several years in Cairo and its surroundings, where she learned Arabic. After her husband’s death (1865) she returned to Piatnyczany. She decorated one of the rooms in the Grocholski palace there in the style of Arabic dwellings, as well as in the palace of → Z. Brzozowski in Odessa. In the palace chapel in Piatnyczany, she created a stained glass representing St. Helena with the cross.
26.XII.1873 she entered the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel (Discalced Carmelites) in Poznań as Sister Maria Ksawera of Jesus. During the actions of the Bismarck government against the Catholic Church (the so-called “Kulturkampf”), she was evicted from the Poznań convent, like other nuns who were not born in Prussia. On 10.XI.1874, along with 10 nuns, accompanied by her brothers, she left Poznań for Kraków, where she was accepted into the Discalced Carmelite convent on Wesoła Street. In the following year, the Poznań nuns moved to a house purchased on Łobzowska Street at the expense of the Czartoryski brothers and her dowry. In October 1898, Czartoryska was elected prioress for the first time (for 3 years), in November 1903, for the second time. She contributed to the construction (1906) of a new convent building (also on Łobzowska Street).
Thanks to Czartoryska, the Czartoryski family supported Jesuit missions, especially Father J. Beyzym, who worked with lepers in Madagascar.
Czartoryska was distinguished by deep piety. “There was in her nature an extraordinary harmony, good and beauty, which naturally and joyfully radiated to the surroundings, arousing sympathy, trust, and friendship. She liked to repeat: ‘One must smile to bring about God’s smile'”****.
She died on 9.V.1928 in Kraków, buried on 11.V in the same place at the Rakowicki Cemetery. Czartoryska’s life was described by Fr. Czesław Gil in the book “Princess in Slippers”.
Enc. katol. (J. Filek); **Catalog, vol. I, p. 215, vol. 6, p. 97 (image of Ch.’s husband); *Aftanazy, vol. 10, pp. 295, 297-29
9, 302,405,407,409,419 (p. 302); Boniecki, vol. III, p. 330; ***Sobańska, pp. 17,27, 29, 30,43, 52, 66, 73; Uruski, vol, II, p. 393; – ****Fr. Maria Ksawera née Grocholski: m. Maria Ksawera // http://czartoryski.fm.interia.pl/grocholska.htm.
The biography comes from the book FAMOUS POLES IN THE HISTORY OF VINNYTSIA REGION by Ms. Wiktoria Kolesnyk.
Posthumous picture of Maria née Grocholskich Witoldowa Czartoryska from the collection of Mrs. Barbara Dubus:
T. Dubiecki – Song in Honor of the Newlyweds Witold Prince Czartoryski and Maria Countess Grocholski Princess Czartoryska
Posthumous picture of Maria née Grocholskich Witoldowa Czartoryska from the collection of Mrs. Barbara Dubus
