Saints must be fools, Sister Małgorzata Chmielewska says. Because only fools know how to live the Gospel all the way through. She is certainly a woman who breaks the mold. She is a nun, but she smokes, sometimes swears, and on top of that she is also a mother and a grandmother. As a young woman she was cheerful and carefree, loved taking long walks with her dog. At university, studying biology, she began to ask herself what life meant. She started reading Christian mystics and above all the Gospel—a book hard to find in communist Poland. When she finally opened it, she knew she had her answer. Christ exists and is love, so there was no point wasting time on other loves. After a period of reflection, she understood something else: she wanted to be a saint, but a saint in jeans—an ordinary person. Once she made that decision, she stopped drinking and began going to church every day. Her family and friends saw the change and said: there goes her mind. But she pressed on. First she contacted the Little Sisters of Jesus, but she wasn't satisfied. Yes, the sisters lived near the poor and offered friendship and support, but they didn't change their lives.
Continuing her search, she discovered by chance the French community Bread of Life and founded the first house for the homeless (there are now seven). Set in the countryside, where it's easy to give each resident work—chopping wood, tending the garden, doing small repairs, cooking, making preserves. Sister Małgorzata never calls them beneficiaries: they are brothers and sisters. She created a method now studied by governments and other institutions. She refuses European funding because, she argues, only 20 percent of that money reaches those who need it; the rest goes to the people and companies running the projects. She finds that immoral. Take it or leave it.
Then Artur arrives. Artur's mother—a homeless woman—comes to the house Sister Małgorzata runs. She tells them she has a three-year-old son in an orphanage. She takes him out, and they spend some time at Sister Małgorzata's house. The woman says she wants to start over. The boy seems sick, but no one can figure out what's wrong with him. Then one day both disappear. The sister and her colleagues find them in a house where alcohol is sold illegally. The mother is drunk; her son shares a bed with another drunk man, both covered in his vomit. The room is freezing. Someone tried to dry the boy's clothes on a stove, but it was off, and they burned instead.
Artur is terrified, hungry, and cold. The police officer with Sister Małgorzata is so shaken that he hands the boy over without a word. She takes him home, holds him in her arms all the time. When she tries to put him down, he clings to her. The people in the house immediately love him—there's no question of sending him back to the orphanage. If you help me, the sister says, I'll see if he can stay. She tracks down his biological mother, but when Artur sees her, he runs away in terror. And so the sister becomes his foster mother.
Over the years the sister has tried to balance work and duty, but as she says, all mothers do the same thing and nobody calls them heroes.
Over the years the sister has tried to balance work and duty, but as she says, all mothers do the same thing and nobody calls them heroes.Though she later took in four other children, Artur remains the "most her son of all." Sister Małgorzata says she cannot imagine life without him because he is part of her. She says God put him in her path so she could learn to love a person exactly as he is. Artur has epilepsy and autism. His mother had to summon all her imagination and intelligence to reach him, and she hasn't always succeeded. Her life—full of things to do, decide, and plan—demands good organization. Artur needs constant care and presence. He is different from her other children, who grew independent as they grew up.
There have been tensions in the house. It hasn't always been easy to find balance between those who wanted her always available and the needs of her children, Artur especially. Sister Małgorzata has walked a tightrope, trying to balance work and duty. But—she says—all mothers do that, and nobody calls them heroes. She knows she has made mistakes, but life is like that too. Fortunately the community is a kind of tribe. The house is full of people, so she's always had help. There was, for example, Jolanda, a real cook, who made wonderful things for the children. She was a warm and kind person, but she was also an alcoholic. When they gave her a house, she drank so much to celebrate that she died.
Difficult as he is, Artur is the darling of the house. He loves lighters, collects them, and puts them in empty bottles. Everyone keeps one in their pocket to give him because it makes him happy. He is also deeply religious. He talks with God and loves Pope Francis. Today he is thirty years old.
