Biography of Józefa Chrobot (Blessed Sister Maria Kanuta, CSFN)
Biographical Description: Born May 22, 1896, in Rachina, outside Czestochowa. In 1921 she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth. She spent her novitiate in Grodno, where she then took her vows as Sr. Maria Kanuta. She was at the Sisters’ convent in Novogrudok from 1931. On the night of July 17/18, 1943, the Gestapo arrested 120 residents of Novogrudok. The Sisters with their mother superior offered themselves in place of the arrested citizens. July 31, 1943, in the evening, the mother superior and ten sisters were summoned to the local commissariat, and at dawn on August 1 they were all shot in a nearby forest. March 5, 2000, the Sisters were beatified by Blessed Pope John Paul II. Sources: “Beatifikatsia muchenits iz Novogrudka”; “Doroga v ochakh Gospodnikh…”; Górska, CSFN, “Męczennice z Nowogródka”