Bl. Alicja Kotowska

Maria Jadwiga Kotowska was born in Warsaw in 1899. She broke off medical studies to join the Sisters of the Resurrection in 1922, taking the name Alicja (Alice). She later studied science and became a teacher in her congregation's schools.

From 1934 she was superior of the convent in Wejherowo, in northern Poland, and head of its school, which grew under her leadership.

After the German invasion, the Gestapo arrested her on October 24, 1939, for her teaching work in a spirit of faith and patriotism. On November 11, 1939, she was shot with other prisoners in the forest at Piaśnica. John Paul II beatified her in 1999 among the 108 Polish martyrs of the Second World War.

Alicja Kotowska was beatified in 1999.

Beatification allows public veneration, usually in a particular region or religious family. Canonization extends it to the whole Church.