She was born on January 26, 1879, in Piętniczany, Winnica County. She was the daughter of Stanisław and Countess Wanda from the Zamoyski family, sister of Zdzisław. She spent her childhood and youth in her hometown. At home, she received a thorough education.
On March 2, 1899, she married Hieronim Sobański (brother of Władysław Sobański), owner of the Sumówka estate and part of Kruszynówka in Olgopol County. The wedding took place in the chapel of Piętniczany. After the wedding, the newlyweds went to Italy, and upon their return, they settled in Sumówka. Over time, they acquired several more Jurewicz estates in Olgopol County: in 1910 – Wojtówka and Wielka Kirijówka (in Sobańska’s name for 470 thousand rubles), close to 1914 – Berszadź and Fłoryna (under conditions of gradual payments – installments, which they never completed, as they lost all their Podolian properties due to the Bolshevik upheaval). Maria Sobańska was a well-known social activist in Podolia. At her initiative and with the efforts of her mother-in-law (Róża Sobańska), a charitable society was established in Berszadź in 1905, with Sobańska as its president. The aim of this society was to support the poorest layers of the population of Berszadź and nearby villages by providing financial means, finding well-paying jobs, and vocational training for the youth. A bit later, the society established and maintained nine secret schools for youth of Polish origin (including in Berszadź, Miastkówka, and Obodówka). Maria Sobańska also belonged to the management of the educational society “Polska Macierz Szkolna na Podolu,” founded by L. Jaroszyńska in 1917, and she took care of its schools in Olgopol County.
During World War I, Sobańska, heading the branch of the Polish Association for Aid to War Victims in Olgopol County, organized charity concerts in the Sumówka palace. Maria Sobańska, along with her husband, set up a hospital there, which had 20 beds, but on the advice of the marshal of the nobility of Olgopol County, Giżycki, the couple transferred the equipment to a hospital established by the Berszadź sugar factory. On December 1, 1918, Maria Sobańska was arrested by the Bolsheviks in Sumówka and taken to Berszadź. On the same day, she was released with her daughters, but her husband and sons were soon taken to prison in Olgopol. After a short stay in Sumówka, which suffered numerous robberies by various bands, Sobańska, under the threat of new arrest, hid in Sokołówka in Olgopol County, Kitajgród, and Tulczyn in Bracław County.
After the execution of her husband and elder son in 1919, with the help of her brother Zdzisław, she moved to Warsaw with her three children. She lived in Warsaw until 1944. For many years, in the Committee for Refugees from Podolia, which she founded, she carried out social and charitable activities, Volhynia and the Kiev region, and as a member of the Society for Assistance to Polish Children and Youth from the Borderlands (founded in 1920 in Warsaw). She also helped her own children, raising her grandchildren. After the Warsaw Uprising, in which she lost all her property, after wandering from Kraków through Sprow, Opole Silesia, Gliwice, she settled with her daughter Barbara’s family in Milanówek. She wrote a book “Wspominki nikłe,” published in Poland.
Słowo Polskie, compiled by Irena Rudnicka, 07.11.14. The book by Wiktoria Kolesnik “Famous Poles in the History of Vinnytsia Region,” the book “Wspominki nikłe” by Maria Sobańska, and “The History of Residences in the Former Borderlands” by Aftanazy were used in writing.
Source: Dzielne Kresowianki