Don Zygmunt Gorazdowski (1845-1920)

The Servant of God Fr Zygmunt Horazdowsky (Latin-rite) was born in 1845. At the end of his second year of law studies he decided to enter the Latin Catholic seminary in Lviv. He finished his studies there and was ordained to the priesthood in 1871. From childhood he was afflicted with a lung ailment, however, that did not prevent him from helping others. He founded two houses which were places for the poor, hungry and homeless. He founded a dormitory for poor students of the local teachers' college. He also founded the "House of the Child Jesus", which gave refuge to single mothers with children and to abandoned children. In 1884, he founded a convent for the Sisters of Mercy of St Joseph, in order that there might be a community of sisters to assist in the benevolent works he had begun. Fr Zygmunt also wrote a catechism and many other books for parents, teachers and young people. He died in 1920.