Marta Anna Wiecka was born in 1874 in
Poland as the third of thirteen children to Marceli Wiecka and Paulina Kamrowska; one brother was the
priest Jan (1878-1970). Wiecka was a good natured child who aided her mother with the household chores and also dealt with looking after her siblings. She was also known for her ardent devotion to
Saint John of Nepomuk; she would have her first
Confession on 8 September 1866 and her
First Communion on 3 October 1866. At the age of sixteen she applied to the Vincentian Sisters in
Chelmo but was told she was not old enough to join. She tried once more at the age of 18 but was turned to their branch in
Kraków where she was accepted. She entered the Vincentian Sisters in Kraków on 26 April 1892 and assumed the religious name of "Maria". On 12 April 1893 she was clothed in the habit and awaited her first assignment. Following her novitiate she was sent to work as a nurse at a hospital in
Lviv in
Ukraine. On 15 November 1894 she was moved to a hospital in
Podhajce and in 1899 to
Bochnia. She made her first vows on 15 August 1897 - on the
Feast of the Assumption. In 1899 she received a vision of the crucified
Jesus Christ who urged Wiecka to endure her suffering and defeat it with patience. Her suffering would come to pass soon enough: a patient deemed mental who had left the hospital started a rumor that she was pregnant after an affair with a patient who was a student and nephew of the parish priest; she remained in Bochnia until she managed to prove her innocence. Wiecka contracted a severe fever after working with ill people in the hospital in 1904 and reported feeling quite weak on 23 May. Her brother, Father Jan, rushed to her bedside upon hearing this news. She died in the evening of 30 May of
typhoid. The Jews - before she died - even performed a special service in the hopes she would recover. ==Beatification==