Left: Sr. Wanda Boniszewska (1907-2003). (Image: CNA/episkopat.pl); right: Blessed Cyprain Micheal Iwene Tansi (Image: Jennifer Udoka Igboanugo/Wikipedia)
VILNIUS The Church has opened the beatification cause of Sr. Wanda Boniszewska, a Polish nun who was a reputed stigmatist and was tortured by Stalin’s secret police. Being a stigmatist means someone either literally or mystically bore the wounds of Christ’s Passion.
Boniszewska began to have mystical experiences in 1921 that lasted over the next six decades. The Soviet secret police arrested her in 1950. News reports say she was seized in connection with the arrest of a Jesuit priest, Fr. Antoni Ząbek, who served her community and was accused of being “a Vatican spy seeking to undermine the Soviet Union.”