Alicja Kotowska
{{Short description|Polish Roman Catholic nun and martyr}}
{{Infobox saint
| honorific_prefix = Blessed
| name = Alicja Jadwiga Kotowska
| honorific_suffix = CR
| image = Alicja Kotowska.jpg
| imagesize = 200px
| caption = Alicja Kotowska, c. 1938
| birth_name = Maria Jadwiga Kotowska
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1899|11|20|df=y}}
| birth_place = Warsaw, Vistula Land, Russian Empire
| death_date = {{death date and age|1939|11|11|1899|11|20|df=y}}
| death_place = Wielka Piaśnica, Nazi Germany
| venerated_in = Roman Catholic Church
| beatified_date = 13 June 1999
| beatified_place = Warsaw, Poland
| beatified_by = Pope John Paul II
| major_shrine =
| feast_day = 11 November
| attributes =
| patronage =
}}
Alicja Jadwiga Kotowska ({{Birth date|1899|11|20|df=y}}, Warsaw – 11 November 1939, near Wielka Piaśnica) was a Polish religious sister who was head of the Resurrectionist convent in Wejherowo between 1934 and 1939. She was arrested by the Gestapo on 24 October 1939 during prayer and murdered alongside over 300 other Poles and Jews on 11 November in one of the Piaśnica massacres. Witnesses reported seeing her comfort Jewish children while being transported.{{Cite book |last=Kay |first=Alex J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yyJCEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA49 |title=Empire of Destruction: A History of Nazi Mass Killing |date=2021 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-23405-3 |language=en}}{{cite book|last=Bojarska|first=Barbara|author-link=|title=Piaśnica|publisher=Wydawnictwo BiT|location=Wejherowo|year=2009|pages= 62|isbn=978-83-927383-8-1|language=pl}} She was beatified by the Roman Catholic Church in 1999 as one of the 108 Martyrs of World War II.
Life
Kotowska was born on 20 November 1899 to a devout Catholic family, the second of eight children.{{Cite book |last=Puścikowska |first=Agata |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lnG0DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT205 |title=Wojenne siostry |date=2020-03-30 |publisher=Otwarte |isbn=978-83-240-5973-7 |language=pl}} During World War I she worked as a nurse. She took her vows on 2 February 1924, but continued her academic studies in addition to her duties, earning a master's degree in chemistry in 1929. She later worked as a teacher and headmistress of a school.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a80TAQAAMAAJ |title=Chrześcijanin w świecie |date=1979 |publisher=ODiSS |language=pl}}
Death
She was arrested by the Gestapo on 24 October 1939 during prayer and murdered alongside over 300 other Poles and Jews on 11 November in one of the Piaśnica massacres. Witnesses reported seeing her comfort Jewish children while being transported.
References
{{reflist}}
Bibliography
- {{Cite book|language=en|url=https://archive.org/details/likedropofwateri0000flor|title=Like a Drop of Water in the Ocean: The Life and Martyrdom of Blessed Sister Alice Kotowska, Sister of the {{as written|Resur|ection [sic]}}|publisher=Congregation of the Sisters of the Resurrection|date=1999|isbn=9788391177532}}.
- {{Cite book|language=pl|title=Błgosławiona siostra Alicja Kotowska|publisher=Wydawnictwo Duszpasterstwa Rolników|date=2001|isbn=9788388743511}}.
- {{Cite book|language=pl|title=Miłość jest wierna do końca: błogosławiona Alicja Kotowska Zmartwychwstanka|publisher=Zgromadzenie Sióstr Zmartwychwstania Pańskiego|date=2001|isbn=9788391177525}}.
- Alicja Marie Jadwiga Kotowska, in {{Cite book|language=pl|title=Wielka encyklopedia Jana Pawła II|volume=1|location=Wydawn|publisher=Edipresse|date=2005|isbn=9788372986436}}.
{{Commons category|Alicja Kotowska|position=left}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kotowska, Alicja Jadwiga}}
Category:Polish people executed by Nazi Germany
Category:108 Blessed Polish Martyrs
Category:Catholic resistance to Nazi Germany
Category:Polish civilians killed in World War II
Category:Executed people from Masovian Voivodeship
Category:20th-century Polish Roman Catholic nuns
Category:Polish women in World War II
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