Feast Day: Oct. 11

Patron Saint of: exiles and sick people

Sophia Camille Truszkowski was born in Kalisz, a small city in central Poland, in 1825. Her parents, Joseph and Josephine Truszkowski, were of noble heritage, well-educated and devout Catholics.

She studied at home with a tutor and read constantly improving her intelligence and understanding. She spent a great deal of time in prayer and reflection, which would lead to a deep spiritual experience at the age of 23. She joined the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and worked with the poor while praying fervently each night to understand God’s will for her.

She formed Poland’s first active-contemplative religious order, the Felicians, and sent sisters on missionary trips to the New World, America.

Her motto was to help all, without discrimination. After years of suffering from tuberculosis, she died in 1899. She has been beatified, one of the church’s steps to canonization – the declaration of someone as a saint.