Michaelina Hordashevska was born on 20 November 1869 in
Lviv, then part of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire and now
Ukraine, into a family who were members of the
Ukrainian Catholic Church. At 18, she considered consecrating her life to God in a
contemplative monastery of the
Basilian nuns, then the only Eastern-rite women's
religious congregation. She attended a
spiritual retreat preached by a
Basilian monk,
Jeremiah Lomnytskyj, whose spiritual guidance she sought. Hordashevska took a private
vow of
chastity for one year with his permission. She was to renew this vow twice. At that time, Lomnytsky, seeing that there was a need for active religious sisters to meet the social needs of the poor and needy faithful of the church, had decided to establish a women's congregation which would follow an active life of service. He did so with
Cyril Sielecki,
pastor of the village of Zhuzhelyany. Lomnytsky felt that Hordashevska would be an appropriate candidate to found such a congregation. Thus, she was asked to be the foundress of such a group, rather than follow the monastic life she had been considering. When she agreed, she was sent in June 1892 to the
Polish Roman Catholic Felician Sisters to experience the life of community, which followed an active
consecrated life. By 1902, the congregation numbered 128 sisters in 26 convents across the country. They held their first
General Chapter in August of that year, at which Hordashevska was elected the first
superior general of the congregation and Lomnytsky resigned from that office. Soon, however, internal divisions led Hordashevska to tender her resignation to the
Metropolitan Archbishop of Lviv,
Andrey Sheptytsky. Under the new superior general appointed by the Metropolitan Archbishop, Hordashevska and her natural sister, Arsenia Hordashevska, were denied permission to take permanent vows. Due to her
canonical status of still being in temporary vows, Hordashevska was ineligible to participate in the next General Chapter of the congregation. Nonetheless, she was elected
vicar general of the congregation
in absentia, with the chapter delegates petitioning the metropolitan that she be allowed to make her permanent vows. This request was granted, and Hordashevska did so the following day, 11 May 1909, and assumed the office to which she had been voted. Three years later, Hordashevska was diagnosed with
tuberculosis of the bone. In 1919, at the age of 49 and on the day she had predicted, she died amidst terrible suffering. == Influence ==