Blessed Anna Kolesárová

Sep 18, 2021

The Pope offered the example of a local blessed, Anna Kolesárová, who was beatified in Lokomotiva Stadium on Sept 1, 2018.

In May that year, Pope Francis recognised Kolesárová as a martyr killed “in hatred of the faith.” Born in present-day eastern Slovakia in 1928, she was killed by a drunken Soviet soldier in 1944, near the end of the Second World War.

At the time, Soviet troops were passing through Kolesárová’s district. When a soldier entered her home and found the family in hiding, he attempted to rape Kolesárová, threatening her with death if she did not comply. Kolesárová refused, and the soldier shot her in front of her family.

The Pope told young people that Kolesárová, who died at the age of 16, taught youth to “aim high,” describing her as a “heroine of love.”

He said: “Please, don’t let your lives just pass by like so many episodes in a soap opera. And when you dream of love, don’t go looking for special effects, but realise that each of you is special. Every one of us is a gift and make life, your own life, a gift. Others, your communities, the poor, are waiting for you.” --CNA