Nun but not forgotten: Oldest nun in the world dies at 110
A nun, thought to be the oldest in the world, has died at the grand old age of 110.
Sister Cecylia Roszak passed away at the Dominican convent in Kraków on Friday where she had been resident for 90 years.
During WWII, the Sister who was then in her late 40s, helped shelter local Jews at a convent in Vilnius which she had set up in 1938 with a group of fellow sisters on a five-hectare farm and where she was when war broke out.
Among those she and the other sisters hid were those who would later go on to become activists in the underground resistance movements in Vilnius and Warsaw.
Included among them were writer Aba Kowner who later became the first intended victim of the Holocaust to identify Hitler’s plan to murder all Jews.
In 1943, the Germans arrested Sister Cecylia’s superior and closed the convent.
During WWII, the Sister who was then in her later 40s, helped shelter local Jews at a convent in Vilnius which she had set up in 1938 with a group of fellow sisters on a five-hectare farm and where she was when war broke out.
In 2009 she was awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations for her wartime efforts.
After the war, she returned to Kraków where she stayed, developing a keen interest in current affairs.
A spokesman for the convent said that despite her advancing years and a recent hip and knee operation, Sister Cecylia was full of vitality, youthfulness and maintained a great sense of humour.
A few years ago she said to her fellow sisters: "Life is beautiful but short."
Sister Cecylia was born on March 25, 1908 in Kiełczew, Wielkopolska.
She graduated from the State Trade and Industrial School of Female in Poznań and when she was 21 joined the Dominican cloister in Kraków.
