Full of Trust in God, Sister Kolumba Travels to Poland to Begin Her Foundation
Lvov, where Sister Kolumba first travelled with her mother in an effort to found a Dominican convent.
This is the continuation of the story of the life of the Mother Maria Kolumba, foundress of the Dominican Sisters of the Immaculate Conception. In our previous installment, the Most Reverend Vincent Jandel, Master General of the Dominican Order had a prophetic insight that Róża would become a Foundress and would bring back the Third Order of active Dominican Sisters in Poland.
It was the dream of Most Rev. Father Vincent Jandel to resuscitate the Third Order of active Dominican Sisters in Poland. Róża Bialecka, on the other hand, who was to become Sister Maria Kolumba, desired in the utmost to live as a Dominican Sister and teach children the Catholic faith.
These two desires came together when Sister Kolumba completed her novitiate, and as a temporarily professed sister, returned to her native Poland. Since she was legally too young at the age of 19 to manage money or her own property, her mother assisted her in presenting herself to the diocesan authorities of the Lvov diocese (currently in Ukraine) with the purpose of finding a place to found a community. The Reverend Father Prelate Antoni Manastyrki was the bishop, and kindly accepted everything, encouraging Sister Maria Kolumba and instructing her to translate the Dominican Constitution into Polish.
Turned Down Everywhere
Although the bishop suggested that she stay in a cloistered convent in Lvov, she was turned down everywhere she went. So, through her mother’s friendship with Benedictine sisters in Przemyśl, she was able to easily find a place where she settled down and began translating the Statutes and Constitution. She was determined to wait after her translating for permission to found the community. Her biographer writes, “In case further waiting would prove futile, she was ready to return to Nancy and stay there till her death.”
