The child Różyczka works out a problem praying with her sister
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.
