Servant of God Anna Kolesarova, 16, of Slovakia, who was murdered in front of her family after refusing the advances of a Soviet soldier, will be beatified as a martyr on September 1.
The Catholic Herald is reporting on the beatification process of the young martyr which was opened in 2004 when she became titled as a Servant of God. In March of this year, Pope Francis declared that she had died “in defensum castitatis,” which means to preserve her virginity, and confirmed her beatification. The ceremony will take place on September 1 in Slovakia.
Anna was born into a pious farming family on July 14, 1928 at Vysoka and Uhom which is near the Slovakian-Ukranian border. The youngest of three, she had a half-sister, Mary, and a brother named Michal. She was just 13-years-old when her mother died and assumed the household duties for her father and brother. The community knew her as a modest, simple girl who frequented daily Mass and rosary services with her family.
In the fall of 1944, as the Eastern front of World War II was entering its final and bloodiest stage, fighting broke out near her home. It was customary for people living in areas under siege to hide in their basements and wait for the shelling to stop. The Kolasarova family was no exception, and as the Red Army entered her village on November 22, they fled to the cellar. It was also customary for young women at the time to don black dresses to disguise their youth and Anna was careful to do this before the family headed into hiding.
A drunken soldier entered the house, discovered the family in the basement, and demanded food. Anna went upstairs and served the man with the hopes he would see that they posed no threat to him. Instead, he began making sexual advances toward her. When she refused, he gave her an ultimatum – give in or die. Still refusing to submit, she fled into the cellar with the soldier right behind her.
True to his word, when she still refused, he told her to say goodbye to her father and brother, then pointed an automatic rifle at her and killed her with two shots, one to the head and the other to the chest. Her last words were recorded as, “Goodbye father! Jesus, Mary, Joseph!”
Because of the intense fighting in the area, the grief-stricken family was unable to bury her until the following evening which they were forced to do under the cover of darkness, using a makeshift coffin and digging little more than a shallow grave. It wasn’t until a week later that the local priest, Father Anton Lukac, was able to celebrate a solemn funeral rite for the young martyr.
After the fall of communism in 1989, devotion to Anna began to spread and her grave site became a popular pilgrimage site.
Speaking to the Catholic News Service, Archbishop Bernard Bober of Kosice, Slovakia said that Anna’s reputation for holiness was inspiring for young people.
“The story of 16-year-old Anna Kolesarova offers a strong message, of course, for the younger generation,” he said. “Her story provides a spiritual response to today’s nostalgia for purity. It’s a message not confined to the younger generation, but one to move all faithful people.”
He added: “Servants of God who gave their lives for Christ in modern Slovak history were the victims of a totalitarian communist regime which suppressed religious freedom, and this will be the first layperson declared blessed.”
A pastoral letter written by the Slovak bishops’ conference, was read in all churches on August 19. It praised the young girl who had been “fully aware, despite her young age” of what awaited her, and had instinctively “followed the voice of conscience” rather than “having time to think and philosophize.”
“Today, the temptations against purity are much greater than before — they weigh on the young soul from every direction, via the internet and media,” the letter said.
“We are tempted to ignore or succumb to manifestations of our imperfect human nature and the fragilities which characterize us as sinful people. In the light of faith, however, we are called to observe limits and boundaries, to be greater and more persistent.”
Anna’s beatification ceremony, which will be conducted by Cardinal Giovanni Becciu, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Saints’ Causes, was to beatify Kolaserova at Lokomotiva Stadium on September 1, is expected to be attended by at least 30,000 Catholics.
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