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Blessed Julia was born on March 16, 1899, in Nawojowa, Poland. She grew up in a loving home until the untimely death of her parents, which left her and her siblings orphaned. While her brothers were taken in by their relatives, she and her sister were cared for by the Dominican Sisters. There she was raised and schooled, eventually entering as one of the Sisters.
Sister Julia had the gift of teaching and administrative skills, which led her to eventually become principal of the school, director of the orphanage, and superior of her local religious house. She was also innovative, organizing summer camps for the poor, an uncommon idea during her time. Her efforts were recognized by the secular city of Vilnius, and she was dubbed the Mother of the Orphans.
She was as compassionate as she was astute, slipping sandwiches under the desks of poorer children and providing for them new and presentable clothing so that no one would notice their material poverty. These little details were not lost on her, as she herself knew the hardships of being poor and being an orphan.
As World War II broke out and German occupation resulted, the Sisters were kicked out from both their apostolates and convent, prohibited even from wearing their religious habits. Undaunted and fearless, Sister Julia organized underground religious classes and clandestine programs to financially assist retired priests. She also ushered her sisters into homes she could find to try to secure their safety and assure their provisions.
Unfortunately, the Gestapo eventually arrested her on July 12, 1943, and placed her in solitary confinement for a year, stifled in a cell only large enough for sitting. She was then shipped off by cattle car to Stutthof Camp, where most stories of her heroic virtues are made known to us from other prisoners.
Blessed Julia never concealed the fact that she was a religious, nor did she lay aside her piety, gathering the women in the barracks for daily prayers (particularly the recitation of the Rosary), an offense punishable by death. On one such gathering, a guard did enter the barrack where they were praying, which made everyone scramble away in fear except for Sister Julia, who remained undauntedly kneeling in prayer and whose face remained transfixed towards heaven. Baffled, the guard, upon seeing her, left as quickly as he entered. A fellow prisoner earlier testified of her, "While near her, one simply felt the need to pray."
Sister Julia was not immune to the sorrows of the concentration camp and on many occasions would cry anguished tears over their harrowing reality, but despite experiencing hell on earth, she continued to be a source of hope for her fellow prisoners, never giving up her total trust in God. She gave up her meager rations for others she perceived as hungrier than herself. She consoled them with her words and encouraged them to not lose hope, saving those who were on the verge of suicide. She secretly arranged for imprisoned priests to celebrate and administer the sacraments for the faithful in the camp, despite the dangers of it. Others of different religions and nationalities would also seek her and even at times entrust her with reconciling conflicts. These are but a few stories of her virtues.
When typhus broke out on the Jewish side of the camp, many warned Sister Julia from going over there, particularly because the Allies were at hand, but her servant heart knew not self-preservation at the expense of her neighbor's plight. There she nursed as best she could those left for dead, moistening their dry lips and whispering prayers over them. Some of them did eventually survive the camp.
Emaciated and weak, she shortly contracted typhus and died less than a month before the camp's liberation. Her fellow prisoners, lying beside her, knew she had expired when they could no longer hear her murmured prayers. Many mourned her death, from the Russians to the Latvians, and the Jewish women who did not hesitate to call her a saint and a martyr, even naming her an "Angel of Goodness." Out of reverence for her, some prisoners paid their respects by covering her naked body, which was piled up with other corpses left to be burned.
Blessed Julia exhibits for us an indomitable soul filled with zeal and courage, but these valiant virtues only manifest themselves because of the ardent love she had for God and neighbor. Her spirit was rooted in humility, entirely dependent on and faithful to the will of God. By the witness of her life, she teaches that love is always applicable, even in and especially under unfavorable times, a lesson very much needed in every age.
