Dominican Sisters of the Immaculate Conception

Podkamień, the site of the miraculous icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

This account, of Róża’s long-awaited approval of her acceptance into the Dominican Order, is from a biography of Mother Kolumba Bialecka, foundress of the Dominican Sisters of the Immaculate Conception.

After her father died when she was only 17, Róża was told by her confessor that she could meet with the Master General, or highest superior, of the Dominican Order, to talk with him about her vocation. He was traveling from Rome throughout the area to visit the Order’s convents.

She met with him, the Most Revered Father Wincenty Jandel, in Podkamień, a city which at that time was part of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Róża’s hopes, although she did not know which religious order she should join, was to teach and educate in a Christian manner children and others, people so neglected because of the misfortunes that took place in Poland.

Her first plan, under the influence of her confessor, a Dominican priest, was to join the Dominican Nuns in Cracow. There were no “active” sisters in Poland, only contemplative cloistered nuns. Roza’s desire was to figure out and follow God’s will regarding her life. After the meeting with Fr. Jandel, she saw more clearly the opportunity — and vocation — to serve people outside the convent. Anticipating the meeting with Fr. Jandel, she said, according to her biographer, “I will open my soul before Father General and will blindly follow his advice, as if I were following the divine voice.”

A long time later, Father Jandel fondly recalled his meeting with Róża. “I cannot forget a profound and clear impression which lasted after this brief meeting with this good, small sister in the sacristy of the cloister in Podkamień, on the day of the Visitation of Holy Mary.”

There, Fr. Jandel told her that he could arrange for her entry into a Dominican convent in Nancy, a city in northeastern France, where she would complete her novitiate. Then, if such was Lord’s will, she would establish a similar convent in Galicia, a region that today straddles Poland and Ukraine. The idea was to get her formation in Dominican spirituality and way of life so she could “transfer” that life to her country. But he sternly warned her that he could not guarantee that she would be able to return to Poland.

This was placing a high degree of confidence in a 17-year-old girl. “So,” the priest said, “consider whether you possess ample strength and generousness to give to our Lord a complete and unlimited sacrifice [by leaving] your country and your family, and taking the vows in these circumstances, with no conditions and without looking back!”

Róża, whose words were recalled by her sister, said that she “was delighted, and accepted everything and gave everything as a sacrifice.”

Taken from Chapter II of the Life of the Reverend Mother Róża Kolumba Białecka, by Sr. Benwenuta Pasławska, Order of St. Dominic’s Sisters, Cracow, Poland, translated into English in 2007.

Róża became afflicted with an unusual lung sickness.

This account, of Róża’s unusual sickness as a teenager and near-miraculous recovery, is from a biography of Mother Kolumba Bialecka, foundress of the Dominican Sisters of the Immaculate Conception.

When Róża told her parents that she wanted to join the convent, her father, although a pious man, refused to give his consent. He said that he would not force her to marry, and was willing to give her the freedom to pray and practice pious acts. “But I won’t let her join the convent because it’s her that I love most among my daughters,” her biographer relates.

Told of her father’s refusal, “she became silent and did not insist but she even more firmly commended her cause to Divine Providence and Holy Mother,” her biographer says.

Then the Lord sent a heavy cross to her parents. Always of delicate health, Różyczka, as she was known around the house, came down with a lung illness. Doctors tried various medications to no avail. They concluded that even though not bedridden, Róża was severely ill and was dying, and would live only three months. They said she was suffering from stress. “Medications cannot influence worries!” her biographer states.

Franciszek, her father, was grieved and heartbroken. He was advised by a Jesuit priest, Fr. Czyżewski, “Let her join the convent and die there in her inner conviction that you love her so much so as to allow her to fulfill the Lord’s will and become a nun.” Otherwise, the priest reasoned, he would feel an immense burden after her death with the knowledge that he never granted her most profound wishes. Who knows, he said, whether the Lord might give her back her health?

Franciszek consented. “Oh, Lord, make her healthy and keep her for me,” was Franciszek’s desire, her biographer says. Różyczka received the news with much enthusiasm. From that day, Róża’s health began to improve almost miraculously. Living at the boarding school of Sacré Cœur in Lvov, Ukraine, she never spoke with her father about her entering religious life, satisfied that the most important obstacle to joining had been removed. Unfortunately, her father did not live long enough to witness her complete recovery. On Feb 17, 1855 God called him to eternal life. She was 17 at the time.

Taken from Chapter II of the Life of the Reverend Mother Róża Kolumba Białecka, by Sr. Benwenuta Pasławska, Order of St. Dominic’s Sisters, Cracow, Poland, translated into English in 2007.

Church and convent of the Sacred Heart Sisters in Lvov, Ukraine

This is an ongoing biography of Mother Kolumba Bialecka, foundress of the Dominican Sisters of the Immaculate Conception.

As a young girl, Róża, or Różyczka, as she was called, showed signs of great piety in her household among family members. When she was eight years old, she took “immense pleasure” in praying the rosary, according to her biographer. She thus encouraged her younger sister Władzia to pray it with her.

But her sister, having less patience, would pray very quickly. Różyczka, on her part, wanted to immerse herself in the prayer. The two would squabble during the prayer, and finally Różyczka reached a compromise. She asked, “when I speak too slowly, just touch me with your hand, Władzia, and when you speak too fast I will do it myself because it’s not right to talk during a prayer lest we offend our Lord.” Her biographer added, “So afraid was she even of a sign of sin.”

When she was twelve, she received the Sacrament of Confirmation in Podkamień, a city in Ukraine, near the Polish border, and there, before the miraculous image of the Holy Mother, took a vow that she would give herself completely and sacrifice herself to serve to Lord, desiring no earthly happiness. “How moving must have been this sacrifice in the eyes of Lord,” her biographer writes.

Her parents sent her along with her younger sister to school to Sacré Cœur in Lvov, another city in Ukraine. During that time she made amazing progress in her spiritual life. “She attracted everybody’s heart towards herself not knowing anything about it, because by that time she felt she was very sinful,” says her biographer.

Taken from the Life of the Reverend Mother Róża Kolumba Białecka, by Sr. Benwenuta Pasławska, Order of St. Dominic’s Sisters, Cracow, Poland, translated into English in 2007.