Separated since birth, twin sisters Gabriela and Elzbieta meet again in the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Elizabeth… The sisters replied in the newspaper Aleteia: “Our story is very long, we can only thank God. ".
On February 23, 1962, Cecylia gave birth to twin girls. She never saw her son's face. Complications during a caesarean section to give birth, she later died. Faced with this traumatic situation, the family did not know what to do other than to separate the twin sisters. one was adopted by the father, the other was raised by the sister of the deceased mother.
And on paper, the two sisters are now cousins! Two sisters Elzbieta and Gabriela from two villages near each other, attend the same school. The sisters often sit in the front row next to each other because they both have poor eyesight.
The two sisters get along very well, play together, choose the same activity together. The two sisters are similar to the way they dress, they always choose the same clothes and shoes.
Cousins but everyone thinks they're twins!
The sisters love to study catechism, enjoy going to retreats with their classmates. On All Saints' Day, the sisters like to visit cemeteries as is the tradition in Poland. Each year, together with their families, the sisters come to pray at the grave of “Aunt Cecylia,” which they did not know was their mother's.
Tradition of visiting cemeteries in Poland: Rakowicki Cemetery in Krakow November 1, 2017. This is one of the most famous Polish cemeteries where the birth of St. John Paul II is buried.
Throughout their childhood, the sisters often heard people who didn't know their stories say, "They're cousins, but they're like twins!" When she was ten, during a family conversation, Gabriela discovered the secret of her birth.
Some time before Elzbieta, she only knew when she received her first Communion. The sisters confided: “Life in the countryside is beautiful, but many people easily talk too much about others… Of course we were shocked even though we understood the good intentions of our loved ones and we were very loved. ".
Vocation
When they were teenagers, the sisters often joined the prayer group of the Sisters of Saint Elizabeth. Each hears the call to his religious life. They talked a lot about this. The sisters loved the spirituality of the order so much that they decided to join the Order of Saint Elizabeth. The date has been fixed, just how to notify the "parents" of both sides.
For Elzbieta, it was smooth sailing because her biological father immediately agreed. As for Gabriela, the opposite is true: the angry 'father' confiscates his identity card and bans Elzbieta from leaving the house. A year and a half later, Gabriela devised a trick to enter the convent with Elzbieta. With the pretext of visiting Elzbieta for their birthdays, Gabriela prepares to enter the convent…forever! Elzbieta was too happy but had to pay a heavy price to cut off contact with her parents for a few years.
In the end, the two sisters were together
Begin the grace period of both of you. It is to be together to come together to Jesus Christ. Five years later, the sisters made their full vows. Gabriela's parents accompanied the parish priest to the event, and in the end they blessed their daughter. And they were very emotional.
For Elzbieta and Gabriela, there was no other way: “When our mother died in childbirth, a nun of the community took my mother's hand. We think our mother prayed for our vocation. The fact that we met again, the same vocation process in the novitiate, it was all God's grace. Our vocation is a very beautiful gift, a gift from heaven.”