The Sisters of the Order of St. Basil the Great’s monastery in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, is less than 40 miles from the front lines of the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia.
Since February 2022, their city has been under constant missile attack. Their entire monastery shakes when the missiles land. Once, when Sister Lucia Murashko was huddled in her room during an air raid, she realized that if a Russian missile struck her monastery, she would likely fall dead onto the altar in their chapel directly below her. Accordingly, she prepared what she would say to her Lord if that came to pass. “Here I am!” she would say to Jesus, “Ah, you look so nice! I have wanted to see you for some time.” She’s pictured to the left below in the monastery.
The sisters have certainly shed many tears in recent months for their country and their people, but they haven’t lost their sense of purpose. Like the Ukrainian people, their will cannot be broken. There is no time for fear or despair.
Ministering in a war zone
In their Zaporizhzhia monastery and across Ukraine, the sisters regularly house women and children, whose husbands and fathers are at war and whose homes and livelihoods have been destroyed.
They give comfort to the soldiers, some of whom have come to their monastery straight from the battlefield trenches. Some haven’t showered in months. The sisters provide showers, wash uniforms and cook hearty meals for them. The grateful soldiers have told them that the meals taste like their mothers’ own cooking.
The sisters also started to make trips to the frontlines themselves, realizing that vulnerable people were stranded there, unable to evacuate due to health or age. They now make regular supply runs to these war-torn villages like the one pictured below, less than a mile from combat, bringing food, gas for cooking, water, clothes and sleeping bags in the coldest months.
Why the sisters enter such peril again and again is true to their missionary identity. “We decided what we have to do is help those who are most in need,” said Sister Lucia, who is among the sisters making these life-threatening journeys. “We have a car, we have something to share, and we have a face because we trust that God will help us.”
Helping Ukrainians in America
Living the charism of their founder, St. Basil the Great, the Basilian Sisters are called to express God’s eternal love through deeds focused on making the world a better place. Not only have they been carrying out this mission in Ukraine, but they are also actively ministering throughout Europe, South America and the United States.
In 1911 the sisters established a community in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the invitation of the Ukrainian Catholic archbishop to care for children and orphans as millions of Ukrainians immigrated to America. Catholic Extension has supported the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the United States for nearly 45 years. And, since the war started, Catholic Extension has funded their efforts to help people in Ukraine as well as in our own country through ministries like those of the sisters.
Just as they are busy on the frontlines in Ukraine, the sisters have also been helping Ukrainian refugee families as they get settled in the United States. Since the war started, they have served approximately 800 families through the Good Samaritan Food Pantry in Philadelphia and hundreds more through the St. Basil Support Ministry, seen below, at their U.S. motherhouse in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, just north of Philadelphia where many of the displaced Ukrainians now live.
The sisters provide food, clothing and furniture multiple days a week. They have even sought out ways to find refugees housing and help pay their rent during their difficult first months in America.
The generosity of the sisters has inspired many refugees to get involved themselves at these distribution centers. Diana Kaday had just finished her master’s degree in accounting a month before the war started. She then had to evacuate to Germany before coming to the United States in the fall of 2022. The sisters helped her procure kitchen supplies for her small studio apartment. The sisters’ kindness helped Kaday, pictured below, realize that she too could help her fellow Ukrainians. She is now a regular volunteer alongside the sisters.
A daily witness to the sisters’ compassion, Kaday said,
The sisters give hope to everyone they encounter. They give help. They give everything they have.”
“When the Ukrainian refugees started coming here, they were saying, ‘Sister, can I help you?’” recalled Basilian Sister Teodora Kopyn, a native Ukrainian who now works in the United States, pictured below.
She continued, “Those volunteers are my blessing. Because helping people, you cannot do by yourself.”
Persevering with courageous spirits
The Sisters of the Order of St. Basil the Great are true heroes around the world. They risk their lives and give their all to refugees as they begin an unfamiliar life in a new country.
As this war lingers on, the sisters’ presence will not waver. They will carry on as a powerful example of courage and selflessness to all whom they serve.
Sister Teodora summed it up well,
My love to God and to people is what gives me strength.”
Catholic Extension Society is honored to share the story of the Sisters of the Order of St. Basil the Great, a finalist for our Lumen Christi Award. This award is Catholic Extension Society’s highest honor given to people who radiate and reveal the light of Christ present in the communities where they serve. Visit this page to read the other inspiring stories from this year’s finalists.
Please consider supporting ministries similar to the Basilian Sisters by donating today!
