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e-mail: katarzynaszymon@wp.pl
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Carers' testimoniess
A room at Marta Godzieks
home in which Katarzyna Szymon suffered, prayed and received pilgrims from
13.11.81 to 24.08.86.
MARTA GODZIEK:
This is the room which Catherine occupied until
her death, all the items are as they were when she was alive, even the bed is
still in the same place.
From 1981 Catherine lived
there permanently. Many people used to pay her a visit : doctors, priests, teachers,
seminarists and nuns. She would provide them with any help and advice on how to
live and how to suffer
This testimony may be viewed in the film
There are a few Catherine Szymon’s photographs
remaining - most of them were taken by Edward Ożóg of Bielsko-Biała.
Many quite amateurish. I kept
asking her for permission but she did not like being photographed, she did not
like to be advertised. She would say she appreciated modesty and needed no
publicity - urging us to show her photographs if we wished but only after her
death. She would modestly make a point of being just as anyone else, agreeing
to suffer for all of us, and for all the wickedness (impurities, filth) of which the world is full.
She suffered badly. I preferred visiting her on days when the pilgrims were
gone – normally on Friday – and it
was usually when she was in great pain. It was heart-aching to see all those
wounds of hers – including her head bleeding profusely. You could notice those
little blood droplets oozing from her skin, and even worse – those tears of
blood. Her eyes looked as if they had been crying with blood. Blood tears ran down her cheeks to her chin. Blood was
evident. Once, after I had taken some photos, one of the priests – I am not
going to say which one as his surname is irrelevant – was due to leave for Rome
– and wanted to take the photographs to show the Pope. It was a Friday
morning – as arranged with Catherine
beforehand. There was such a moment when Catherine said: "I am not going
to show myself to the Pope like that " -
she went to the bathroom to wash herself and remove her blood-stained
clothes. On returning I could observe from a distance of some 3 metres in the
corridor – that blood was appearing on her face all over again.
This testimony may be viewed in the film
Catherine Szymon had at the
end of her life her own chauffeur – Stanisław Płonka of Katowice.
This is the very car in which I used to drive
Catherine Szymon around. I got to know her in 1978. At that time I was constantly sick and it was
her pleadings that made me recover – in return I decided to drive her to all
those miraculous places.
This testimony may be viewed in the film
Catherine Szymon bore
sufferings which were not only physical, without any complaint and always with forgiveness at heart she
accepted many painful and false judgements and even calumnies.
MARTA GODZIEK:
But what was most sorrowful was the fact that
she was harassed. Some people accused her of scratching her wounds herself. I
had been an eye-witness for six years, observing everything and I know she did
not scratch herself. She bled idiopathically on Fridays and Wednesdays - blood gushed from the wounds in her side,
head, feet and from her eyes.
This testimony may be viewed in the film
