Hesselblad was born in 1870 into a Lutheran family with 13 children before heading to the United States in her teens in search of better economic opportunities.
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The late Maria Elizabeth Hesselblad, who was canonized by Pope Francis.
Hesselblad, a former nurse, is credited with saving at least 12 Jews during the war by concealing them inside the Rome convent where she was the mother superior. Hasselblad is the second Swedish saint in six centuries, after St. Bridget, who was canonized in 1391.
Polish President Andrzej Duda and Swedish Culture Minister Alice Bah-Kuhnke attended the Sunday ceremony at the Vatican, along with hundreds of pilgrims from both countries.
(AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino). The relics of Elizabeth Hesselblad and of Stanislaus of Jesus and Mary Papczynsk are placed in front of the altar in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican during the canonization ceremony led by Pope Francis, Sunday, June 5…
Pope Francis closed his homily noting that the saints canonized “are exemplary witnesses to this mystery of resurrection”, and prayed that all would join the saints in singing the day’s responsorial psalm, “I will extol you, Lord, for you have raised me up”. After working as a nurse, she became a Catholic in 1902. She died in Rome April 24, 1957, and was beatified April 9, 2000, by St. John Paul II.
Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust remembrance center, recognized her actions when it honored her as one of the Righteous Among the Nations in 2004, an award bestowed upon non-Jews who helped Jews during the Holocaust. She converted to Catholicism in her thirties.
Her canonisation comes ahead of Francis’s scheduled trip to Sweden later this year to mark the 500th anniversary of the start of the Protestant Reformation. In his early years he himself experienced serious sickness and begged in the streets.
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In addition to founding the Congregation of Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, the saint also experienced visions of Holy Souls in Purgatory, and urged penance and prayers on their behalf.
