Marica Brecelj

Marica Brecelj (25 April 1914 – 12 July 1944) was a Slovenian shop assistant. She was a devout Catholic and was the head of the Sodality of the Virgin Mary in her parish. She was abducted and later killed by communists during World War II. Her mother was the shopkeeper Emilija Brecelj (1887–1960), and her father was the master carpenter Jože Brecelj (1885–1944), the brother of the physician and politician Anton Brecelj. (Despite the same surname, it appears her parents were not related.) She was the eldest child. In 1916 her younger sister Angela Brecelj (1916–1944), also a shop assistant and martyr, was born.