Polish nun Sister Cecylia Roszak, who has been honored for sheltering Jewish children during the Holocaust, died last week at the age of 110 and was laid to rest on Thursday in Krakow.
Born March 25, 1908, Sister Cecylia joined a Krakow convent at age 21. She was in her 30s during the German occupation of Poland during World War II, and was one of several nuns who set up a new convent near Vilna, today Vilnius in Lithuania, where they hid Jews who had escaped the ghetto there from the Nazis.
"She was like a mother to them, understanding, caring. And then the persecution of these children by the Germans started," said fellow nun Sister Stefania, of the Dominican convent in Krakow.
Holding a photograph of Sister Cecylia and two of the children, Sister Stefania said, "She hid them in the bales of grains in the barn where there were a few other nuns dressed as civilians and those children.
"She was taking care of them very warmly and she also took care of their education, not only the spiritual but also the intellectual education of these children."
The Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and museum recognized Sister Cecylia as Righteous Among the Nations in 1984 for having risked her life to save Jews during the Holocaust.
Nuns and other church members gathered in Krakow for her funeral, where she was remembered as modest and merciful.
The mother superior of her convent, Stanislawa Chruscicka, told The Associated Press in a phone interview that Sister Cecylia would often comment that "life is very beautiful but too short."
Chruscicka said a huge bouquet at Thursday's funeral was sent by a woman called Wanda Jerzyniec, who, along with her brother, was sheltered by Sister Cecylia after the Germans shot both their parents in Vilnius in 1944.
Chruscicka said the nuns learned about Jerzyniec earlier this year after Polish media wrote about Sister Cecylia on her 110th birthday. She said that Jerzyniec was too frail to attend the funeral.
The funeral Mass was held at the Dominican nuns' church in Krakow and Sister Cecylia was then buried in the city's historic Rakowicki cemetery.
Father Pawel Rytel-Andrianik, spokesman for Poland's Roman Catholic Church, described Sister Cecylia as "probably the oldest nun in the world," while Chruscicka said she was certain she was the oldest.
"She was a person who was very demanding with herself, but at the same time she had a very open and merciful heart for the convent community, just like Mother Theresa of Calcutta," Sister Stefania said.
