Antonina Maria Izabela Wiłucka-Kowalska (née Wiłucka; 28 October 1890 – 28 November 1946) was a Polish religious leader, who served as the first archpriestess of the Catholic Mariavite Church.
[3][b] Wiłucka-Kowalska was the first woman to receive the sacrament of holy orders in Poland and consecration as a bishop.
In the same year, after the introduction of clerical marriage into the Old Catholic Mariavite Church,[d] she married the charismatic leader of the church,[8] Archbishop Jan Maria Michał Kowalski on 3 October 1922, in one of the first secret mystical marriages – between a priest and a nun.
While her husband, Kowalski, served 18 months of a prison sentence beginning in July 1936 for his 1928 and 1929 convictions,[12][g] Wiłucka-Kowalska exercised authority over the church.
Following the arrest by the Gestapo of Kowalski in January 1940 and his deportation to the Priest Barracks of Dachau Concentration Camp, Wiłucka-Kowalska took over the management of the Catholic Mariavite Church until her death in 1946.
As far as possible, she led the Catholic Mariavite Church and maintained correspondence with her husband, who was imprisoned in Dachau concentration camp.