Lidzbark Warmiński - Droga Sióstr Katarzynek [Beatyfikacja 31.05.2025 w Braniewie]

Shocking events took place in the refectory of the st Catharine nuns in Lidzbark Warmiński at the end of the Second World War. A group of Soviet soldiers ragged the sisters and tried to rape the youngest of them, threatening to shoot them. Then the superior, shielding them with her own body, said: "Instead of them, shoot me". They were all beaten. That same evening, three sisters were shot. How did this happen? On 2 February 1945, a group of Red Army officers with an entourage of soldiers broke into the convent, making their temporary quarters there. Twenty-five sisters were living there. In addition, the house was filled with a group of a hundred refugees, mainly women with children, who, fleeing the war, were looking for refuge in the sisters convent. Soldiers scattered to every nook and cranny of the large building, and officers demanded dinner. The sisters, having many wards at home and wanting to ease the situation, served the meal. With the onset of late evening it became very dangerous. Drunken soldiers, in spite of a house full of people, have taken a liking to the nuns. Some of the nuns managed to hide in the attics of the convent, but others were dragged into the refectory. Attempts to beat and pull the sisters out of the group began. The women held each other tightly, so the soldiers forcibly snatched their rosaries, tore off their veils, and tugged at their monastic collars and habit belts. Sister Aniceta Skibowska, a community nurse, was killed by a rifle shot. Sister Gebharda Schrötter knelt by the lying woman to say a prayer for the dying woman. The soldier who saw this became enraged. He shot her directly in the heart. The third victim was the superior of the house, Sister Sabinella Angrick. She was shot in the carotid artery and one of the soldiers came up and violently jerked her body in such a way that she still hit her head on the floorboards. Then the bored soldiers left the refectory. At dawn, the bodies lying in pools of blood were managed to be moved outside the building, from behind under the veranda. It was not possible to bury them. In the following hours, orgies and devastation of the rooms prevailed in the house, and the surviving nuns left the building. They were only able to return to Lidzbark Warmiński after four months. Under the veranda at the back of the convent, the bodies of the three dead nuns were no longer there. To this day it is not known where they were buried. The Sisters of the Congregation of St Catherine died because they stayed for the people in need of help, the wounded and the hungry, to whom they gave shelter in the convent. They were faithful to the vow of chastity to the end. They gave their lives for these values. We wait for their beatification.