Polish archaeologists have recently identified previously discovered skeletons of three Catholic nuns who were killed by Russian soldiers at the end of World War II.
The Russian army invaded Poland in 1944 after the occupation of Germany, hoping to gain control by arresting, exiling and murdering Polish soldiers, civilians and members of their religious community.
Historical records from 1945 – the year of VE Day – show that soldiers murdered seven nuns of the order of Santa Catarina de Alexandria. Researchers first searched a website in Gdańsk last summer, and Poland’s National Memory Institute (IPN) reported that they found Sister Charytyna’s remains.
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In October 2020, other excavations at a local parish cemetery in Orneta exposed the remains of what is thought to be Sister Generosa, Sister Krzysztofora and Sister Liberia, according to an IPN statement.
All three nuns served at the Marian Hospital in Olsztyn, where they worked as nurses before they died in the winter of 1945.
Two areas were designated for archaeological work after the burial team’s documentation, including the old rooms of the Sisters of Santa Catarina.
However, archaeologists would have to dig deeper and find the nuns required a “temporary exhumation” of the second burials.
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In December, IPN announced that they had located the remains of the last three nuns: Sister Rolanda, Sister Gunhilda and Sister Bona.
During the exhumation, the crew found religious artifacts, including “religious medals, crucifixes, elements of religious clothing and religious rosaries”.
Pathologists at the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Gdańsk will now examine the skeletons to confirm their identities and gain a better understanding of their lives and the devastating nature of their deaths.
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Some facts are already known to IPN, which reported that Sister Generosa had been locked in the hospital’s attic and “mistreated”.
Sister Krzysztofora he died at the age of 42 after soldiers gouged out his eyes, cut off his tongue and stabbed him with bayonets 16 times. Sister Liberia was shot after leaving an air raid shelter.
IPN notes that Catholic clergy in Poland are seeking beatification for the murdered Santa Catarina sisters.