Sisters Servants to celebrate centennial of their mission (09/29/02)

Sisters Servants to celebrate centennial of their mission

WINNIPEG - The Ukrainian Byzantine Rite Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate (SSMI) in Canada will hold eparchial celebrations of the centenary of their mission on Sunday, October 6, with a divine liturgy of thanksgiving at St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church, to be followed by a luncheon at the Ramada Marlborough Hotel.

The centenary celebrations of the SSMI, which began in June, will continue through November of this year, with celebrations to continue in 2003.

The Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate, the first Ukrainian apostolic congregation of women, were founded in 1892 in Zhuzhel, western Ukraine, by the Rev. Kyrylo Seletsky, a parish priest, under the spiritual guidance of Y. Lomnytsky of the Basilian order. The first charter was approved by Metropolitan Sylvester Sembratovych in May 1892, and in September of that year a novitiate was opened in Zhuzhel, with nine novices. The first prioress of the Sisters Servants was Sister Josaphata Hordashevska.

In 1902, in response to a request by the Canadian Roman Catholic hierarchy, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky sent a group comprising three Basilian priests, a lay brother and four Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate, to minister to the new Ukrainian immigrants in Canada. The first Sisters Servants in Canada were Sisters Ambrosia Lenkewich, head of the SSMI mission; Taida Wrublewsky, Isidora Shypowsky and Emilia Klapowchuk.

This small missionary group arrived in Montreal from New York City where their steamer, the Moltke, had docked. From Montreal, were they were greeted by Archbishop Langevin and Father Lacombe, they traveled to Ottawa to obtain the blessing of Archbishop D. Falconio, apostolic delegate, upon their life and missionary work in Canada. The group arrived in Edmonton on November 1, 1902, where they were received by Father H. Leduc of St. Joachim's parish and welcomed by a group of Ukrainian immigrants.

In 1903, after the death of Sr. Taida, the three remaining Sisters moved to Mundare, Alberta (Beaver Lake), where they lived at first in a cabin, sharing the lot of their fellow immigrants, amid the hardships of pioneer life.

Vocations to the Sisters Servants made it possible for the nuns to open schools in Mundare and Edmonton and travel near and far to teach catechism and minister to the sick. In 1905, with the arrival of two Sisters Servants from Ukraine in Winnipeg, they were able to open St. Nicholas School (present-day Immaculate Heart of Mary School).

In 1927 on their 25th jubilee of mission work in Canada, there were 87 professed Sisters Servants in seven missions and 11 in the novitiate.

The year 1934 was significant for the SSMI worldwide, with the creation of three provinces - in Europe, Canada and Brazil; the establishment of headquarters for the superior general and her council in Lviv; and the undertaking of new mission work by the order's Canadian Province of Christ the King, which sent four Sisters to the United States to serve in Stamford, Conn.

In the next decades the Sister Sevants' mission continued to expand in the three prairie provinces and missions were founded in Ontario and Nova Scotia. The SSMI novitiate was transferred from Mundare, Alberta, to Ancaster, Ontario, in 1946 and their central headquarters to its present location in Toronto in 1949. In the 1970s the sisters founded missions in British Columbia, in New Westminster and Prince George.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the Sisters Servants went overseas to serve their community and people in Italy (Rome), England (Bradford), Germany (Neu Ulm, Munich) and France (Mackwiller), and in the 1980s opened three missions in Australia. They assisted their Mother Province in Ukraine (Lviv, Mukachiv and Kyiv) as it re-established itself after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The Sister Servants have touched the lives of many individuals in the Ukrainian community through their good works. They provide dedicated service through their work at Immaculate Heart of Mary School, Holy Family Nursing Home, and the Ukrainian Catholic Religious Education Center in Winnipeg, as well as St. Paul's Home in Dauphin.

Currently, Sister Zoe Bernatsky is the order's local superior in Winnipeg; Sister Junia Kunanec serves as provincial superior in Toronto.

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The sisters will celebrate 100 years of service, with a divine liturgy of thanksgiving on October 6 at 10:30 a.m. at St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church, 737 Bannerman Ave. in Winnipeg. A luncheon will follow at the Ramada Marlborough Hotel, 331 Smith St. at Ellice, at 1:30 p.m. Tickets for the luncheon will be available at a cost of $25 per person for adults and $10 for children under age 12. For tickets contact Pat Huzel or Brian Huzel by calling (204) 667-8549; e-mail pat.huzel@shaw.ca. (Tickets will not be available at the door.)

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