Josaphata Hordashevska

Father Jeremiah Lomnytskyj, observing the immense material, moral, and spiritual distress of the rural populations of Galicia, planned to found a female congregation of active life. With the help of Father Cyril Sielecki, pastor of the village of Zhuzhelyany, he proposed to Michaelina that she become the cornerstone of this new work. She agreed to renounce her plan for a contemplative life to dedicate herself to the active service of the most destitute.

In June 1892, she was sent to the Felician Sisters in Lviv to gain practical experience in active community and apostolic life. Returning two months later, she received the religious habit on August 24, 1892, and took the name Josaphata, in honor of the Ukrainian martyr Saint Josaphat Kuntsevych. Thus was born the Congregation of the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate, the first female community of active life within the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

As the first superior, Josaphata trained young recruits according to the institute's charism: "To serve the people where the need is greatest." The sisters dedicated themselves without measure: they cared for the sick, opened kindergartens for the children of peasants, taught catechism to youth and adults, maintained neglected rural churches, and made liturgical vestments.

Under her leadership, the congregation experienced rapid development. In ten years, it already counted 123 sisters spread across 23 houses. Very quickly, the sisters extended their mission beyond the borders of Galicia to accompany Ukrainian emigrants, notably in Canada, Brazil, and Croatia.

Despite this success, Josaphata endured heavy trials, including internal misunderstandings and slander. She demonstrated heroic patience, even accepting being deprived of her perpetual vows for many years, before finally being able to pronounce them on May 11, 1909.

In 1912, Josaphata was diagnosed with bone tuberculosis. This disease, then incurable, caused her excruciating suffering which she endured with total resignation and an intimate union with the Passion of Christ. She passed away on April 7, 1919 (March 25 according to the Julian calendar) in Krystynopil (today Chervonohrad, in Ukraine), at the age of 49, after having predicted the exact day of her death.

She was initially buried in the Krystynopil cemetery. In November 1982, faced with the abandonment of the cemetery under the Soviet regime, her mortal remains were clandestinely exhumed and transferred to Rome, where they are now venerated in the chapel of the congregation's General House.

The cause for the beatification of Josaphata Hordashevska was officially opened in Przemyśl (Poland) in March 1992. On April 6, 1998, Pope John Paul II signed the decree recognizing the heroic nature of her virtues, conferring upon her the title of Venerable.

A miracle of unexplained healing, attributed to her intercession, was officially recognized by a decree promulgated at the Vatican on April 24, 2001.

The beatification ceremony was celebrated by Pope John Paul II on June 27, 2001, in Lviv, during his pastoral visit to Ukraine, before a crowd of more than one million faithful.

The spirituality of Blessed Josaphata rests on an absolute trust in Divine Providence and a filial devotion to the Virgin Mary. Her action deeply marked the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church by introducing the concept of active and social religious life, breaking with the sole contemplative monastic tradition.

Today, the Congregation of the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate continues her work throughout the world, present in many countries (Ukraine, Canada, Brazil, Poland, Slovakia, United States, Kazakhstan, etc.). In October 2025, Blessed Josaphata was officially proclaimed patroness of the catechists of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

Her liturgical feast was set for November 20 (the day of her birth) by papal decree, rather than April 7 (the day of her death), because the latter date coincides with the great feast of the Annunciation in the Julian calendar used by her Church.