Organization of the Sodality of Our Lady by Women Students of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow (1906-1939)

The Sodality movement has been initiated in the 16th c. and it was around then that the first sodality organizations were created in Poland. The Sodality of Our Lady for Women Students and Female Participants of Higher Courses in Krakow was founded in 1906; it co-created the Krakow sodality movement in the interwar period together with the Sodality Movement of the Academicians at the Jagiellonian University, the Sodality Movement of the Academicians of the Academy of Mining and the Sodality Movement of the Students of the Higher Commercial College in Krakow. In 1925 the Sodality of Our Lady for Women Students and Female Participants of Higher Courses in Krakow became transformed into the Sodality of Our Lady for Women Academicians and when the ruling concerning academic associations was introduced in 1933, the organization had changed its name into: Sodality of Our Lady for Women Students of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. The latter organization had laid special emphasis on religious instruction and spiritual formation of its female members, which is a characteristic feature of all sodality movements. But apart from the activity which was focused on the spiritual sphere, the Sodality movement also provided assistance in the strictly material sphere both to sodality members and persons from outside the organization – among others, to children, those in need of material aid or the sick who were undergoing treatment in St. Lazarus or St. Ludwig Hospitals in Krakow