Marija Petković
| Blessed Marija Petković | |
|---|---|
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| Foundress | |
| Born | December 10, 1892 Blato, Korčula, Croatia |
| Died | July 9, 1966 |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Beatified | 6 June 2003, Dubrovnik, Croatia by Pope John Paul II |
| Feast | July 9 |
Marija Petković, also known as "The Blessed Mary of Jesus Crucified Petković"; (Croatian: Marija od Propetoga Isusa Petković, Italian Maria Di Gesù Crocifisso), (10 December 1892 - 9 July 1966) was the founder of the Catholic Congregation of the Daughters of Mercy. She was recognized by the Roman Catholic Church as a Venerable Servant of God on 8 May 1998, and was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 6 June 2003.
Petković was born in the small town of Blato on the Croatian island of Korčula (at that time part of Austria-Hungary), the sixth of eleven children born to Marija Marinović and Antun Petković-Kovač. She died in Rome, Italy.
After elementary school, Petković enrolled in 1904 in Blato's municipal school, which had been recently founded by the Servants of Charity, a Catholic order newly arrived from Italy. After successfully completing the three-year program, she continued her studies at the School of Domestic Science, also directed by the Servants of Charity. In 1906 she joined the association of the Daughters of Mary. About this time she revealed to Bishop Josip Marcelić of Dubrovnik that she wanted to enter the convent, which marked the beginning of Marija's spiritual direction under the Bishop's care. On 21 November 1906, she made a private vow of chastity to the Lord.
From 1909 to 1919 Petković was president of the Daughters of Mary. Although frail and frequently ill, in addition to her obligations in her parents' home, she provided catechesis and instruction in general subjects to the children of the families whose parents worked on her father's estate. In 1911 her father died, leaving her to help her mother care for the family and provide for the education of the other children. That labor, amid the destruction wreaked in Croatia by World War I, was very influential in Petković's vocational discernment. She became involved in a number of Catholic organizations, and, in 1915, under the guidance of Bishop Josip, began her first new association, the Society of Catholic Mothers. In 1917 she assumed the responsibility of guiding the Third Order Franciscans. That same year, she began helping the Servants of Charity in the "soup kitchen" that they directed.
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