Our saint of the day today is Blessed Marianna Biernacka. Marianna was born in 1888 in Poland. She married a farmer and had six children, only two of whom survived infancy. In 1943, during the second World War, Marianna's son, Stanislaw, and daughter-in-law, Anna, were arrested by German Soldiers in retaliation for the death of some German Soldiers who had been shot in a near-by village. Anna was pregnant with the couple's second child. Stanislaw and Anna were singled out by the German's to be shot, but Marianna offered to take the place of her daughter-in-law. The soldiers agreed and, after two weeks of imprisonment, Marianna was shot and killed on July 13, 1943. Her last request was to hold her rosary, which was granted.
Anna, spared by this act of self-sacrifice, lived to be 98. Their descendants still live in the area.
In June 1999, Marianna was beatified and recognized as a martyr along with 107 other Polish victims of Nazi Germany. Collectively, they are known as the 108 Blessed Polish Martyrs.
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