SASKATOON (CCN) — The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Eparchy of Saskatoon held its 20th annual pilgrimage dedicated to two religious women who were martyred while in exile in Siberia during the Soviet era. This year also marks the 25th anniversary of their beatification.
The Venerable Olympia and Laurentia, both Ukrainian Sisters of St. Joseph, died in 1952 as martyrs of the faith, and were beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2001, alongside 25 other Ukrainian martyrs of the same era. More than a million people had attended the beatification ceremony held outside Lviv, Ukraine.
The relics of the two sisters arrived in Saskatoon on June 27, 2006. Their remains were discovered a year prior, in 2005, in Siberia during an expedition funded by the Ukrainian Sisters of St. Joseph of Saskatoon.
The pilgrimage was held in Saskatoon at a shrine dedicated to the two martyrs. The pilgrimage began with an evening procession June 26, with the relics of the martyrs, followed by a Moleben and a dinner of grilled fish burgers. Bishop Michael Smolinski, CSsR, of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Eparchy of Saskatoon, celebrated the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy the next morning. Other clergy of the eparchy concelebrated. A luncheon followed.
Sister Olympia and Sister Laurentia both were born in western Ukraine, close to Lviv: Olympia was born in 1903 in Tsebliv, and Laurentia was born in 1911 in Rudnyky. They joined the Ukrainian Sisters of St. Joseph, a religious community founded in 1896 in Tsebliv to witness to the Gospel through works of charity. The two sisters were assigned to the same convent in Khyriv in 1938, where Sister Olympia was named superior.
In the Soviet persecution of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church after the Second World War, the hierarchy of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, as well as many of its priests, catechists and religious were arrested, exiled, tortured and died excruciating deaths.
Sister Olympia and Sister Laurentia were arrested by the communist authorities in 1950 and accused of “anti-Soviet” activities for their prayer and work among those in need. Both were exiled for life to a camp in the West Siberian Plain, more than 3,500 km away. While at the camp, they continued to care for the sick and elderly, and to catechize the children.
Sister Olympia wrote to her provincial superior from the camp: “Because of our faith, because of divine matters, we suffer, and what could be better than this?” She died Jan. 23, 1952, from starvation.
Sister Laurentia contracted tuberculosis at the time of her arrest and exile. She also was assigned to grueling manual labor at the camp. She died Aug. 28, 1952.
The Ukrainian Sisters of St. Joseph only began their apostolate in Canada years later in 1961, establishing a personal care home in the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Saskatoon.
