Blessed Hanna Chrzanowska, whose feast day is celebrated on April 28th, was born in Warsaw, Poland, on Oct. 7 1902, to a wealthy family, with whom she enjoyed an idyllic childhood. Hanna knew about the nursing profession even as a child, because her maternal aunt, Zofia Szlenkier, who was a well-known philanthropist and founded a paediatric hospital in Warsaw, had studied nursing herself at St. Thomas’ School of Nursing in London, England. When Hanna became ill as a child, and needed to go to hospital, she was admitted to her aunt’s paediatric hospital.

As the Marian Fathers’ healthcare apostolate prepares for its 16th Annual Divine Mercy Medicine, Bioethics & Spirituality Conference this spring, they are doing so during a year of special significance. 

In honor of the 200th anniversary of the birth of the founder of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale, the World Health Organization (WHO) has designated 2020 as the “Year of the Nurse and Midwife.”