The beatified Sister Zdenka Schelingová, with the maiden name Cecília, was born on 24 December 1916 in “Krivá na Orave”. Entirely engrossed by the love and self-sacrifice of the merciful sisters of the Holy Cross, she – as a fifteen-year-old girl – went to their convent for nuns in Podunajské Biskupice and committed to give all her life to the love of God and her neighbors. After finishing medical school and compulsory convent education, on 30 January 1937 she took her first vows and received her convent name - Zdenka. As a medical nurse, she first worked in Humenné, and from 1942 onwards at Bratislava State Hospital’s X-ray ward. Not even after the political upheaval in 1948, when the persecution of the Catholic Church started, could she betray her belief. With exceptional courage, in February 1952 she helped an imprisoned priest to escape while he was being treated at the hospital for the effects of torture. She said: “Lord Jesus, for his life I sacrifice my only life. Help him to stay alive!” The State Security Service arrested her on 29 February 1952, and after merciless anguish in the pre-trial custody in Bratislava, she was finally sentenced, on 17 June 1952, to 12 years of imprisonment and condemned to 10 years of civic rights loss. She was kept in prisons in Rimavská Sobota, Pardubice, Brno, and Prague. As her belief demanded, she suffered the cruel treatment of custody with heroic fortitude. When it was clear that due to severe health problems she had no more than one year left to live, she was released on amnesty on 16 April 1955 . Three months later on 31 July 1955, she died at Trnava Hospital. Her physical remains are kept at the Holy Cross Church in Podunajské Biskupice. The exceptional life of Sister Zdenka Schelingová was acknowledged by Pope John Paul II, who beatified her in Bratislava on 14 September 2003 during his third visit to Slovakia. The life story of Sister Zdenka Schelingová – the first Slovak woman to be beatified – shines as an example of loyalty and forgiveness, as the way to unity and peace in the historical context of the renewal of Slovakia and Europe