Kozka, Karolina, Bl.

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KOZKA, KAROLINA, BL.

Virgin martyr for purity, lay woman; b. Aug. 2, 1898, Wal-Ruda, Poland; d. there Nov. 18, 1914. The fourth of the eleven children of the farmers Jan Kozka

and Maria Borzecka, vivacious Karolina developed an intense prayer life at an early age. She was dragged into the woods and killed by one of the occupying Russian soldiers after she rejected his advances. When her body was found nearly three weeks later, it was interred in the churchyard at Zabawa (Dec. 6, 1914). Her relics were translated in November 1917 and a cross erected at the execution site. Pope John Paul II beatified her at Tarnów, Poland, June 10, 1987.

Bibliography: Acta Apostolicae Sedis (1987) 739. L'Osservatore Romano, Eng. ed. 29 (1987) 35.

[k. i. rabenstein]