Sisters from around the world meet in Uniontown for session
After 40 years as a Sister of St. Basil the Great, Sister Zinovija Kolic is visiting the United States for the first time as she participates in a historic meeting at Mount St. Macrina in Uniontown. “I’m very grateful, overjoyed to have this opportunity to meet the sisters here,’ Sister Kolic said, speaking through a translator. “Now I know how another community lives and can compare my lifestyle with the lifestyle in America.’
This learning experience is just what Sister Alphonsa Danovich was hoping to achieve when she suggested the international order of the Sisters of St. Basil hold their biennial enlarged council meeting in Uniontown, where the Monastery of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Province at Mount St. Macrina is acting as host. It is the first time this meeting has been held outside of Rome.
Sister Danovich, a Johnstown native and a member of the Uniontown province who is also a graduate of the former Mount St. Macrina Academy, has served one year of a six-year term in Rome as general superior of the international order.
She suggested the change in meeting place as a way to expose members to a different view.
“This is an international order, and consecrated women are serving God, no matter where we are,’ said Sister Danovich.
Sister Joann Sosler of Philadelphia, who acted as translator for Sister Kolic, commented about this meeting in America: “I think it’s very hopeful, very inspiring and awesome. You’ve known about people, but this is an opportunity to meet them and recognize the internationality of the community.’
The Enlarged Council Meeting, which began Sept. 30 and continues through Saturday, includes major superiors who represent provinces, vice-provinces and delegatures in Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, the Ukraine and the United States. The latter has two provinces: Uniontown and Philadelphia.
Representatives in communities in Australia and Hungary were unable to attend.
At the meetings, the church leaders are focusing on leadership, formation, various canonical processes and procedures, as well as the richness of the Byzantine tradition.
In addition, the participants are visiting Byzantine sites and points of interest in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and New York City, including a stop at the former site of the World Trade Center.
An unexpected opportunity is that the meeting has given nearly three-fourths of the 19 participating sisters a chance to see family members who live in the United States and Canada.
For example, Sister Kolic, who is provincial of the vice-province of Krizevci, Croatia, took two weeks before the meetings to visit her brother and two sisters in Canada. It had been 25 years since she had seen them.
“My brother has been in Canada 48 years. Since then, we have seen each other twice – he came to Croatia once and I came to Canada once. The visit was very good,’ said Sister Kolic.
The meetings also have given the sisters an opportunity to share their lives with each other. While they have kept up with conditions in the different provinces, these visits now enable the sisters to make these conditions more personal.
Sister Kolic explained how the Sisters of St. Basil in her province in Croatia had to sustain themselves under communist rule by working their land. Times were difficult, as they were forbidden to do other kinds of work.
“But we had hope,’ Sister Kolic said.
Today, with communism gone, the Sisters of St. Basil in Croatia have the freedom to carry on their ministries to children, the elderly and operate a school.
“I am able to put into practice what I learned from the Bible, to be of service to others without fear,’ Sister Kolic said, smiling.
Sister Ruth Plante, provincial of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Province in Uniontown, said, “This is a good chance for an exchange of our cultures.’
Even the geography of Fayette County proved surprising and pleasing to many of the sisters. Sister Danovich noted that two Ukrainian sisters who were in Holland before coming to the United States were pleased to see the Appalachian Mountains, which reminded them of home, as were the sisters from Slovakia.
“What amazed me was all the empty space. In Croatia, homes are next to other homes. It’s the same thing in Edmonton, Canada. There is all this land. And it’s so peaceful here (at Mount St. Macrina) with all this space. In Croatia, you have noise from the train and transportation,” said Sister Kolic.
Sister Danovich said that, in coming to America for the meeting, she wanted her fellow sisters to broaden their experiences and take them back to their homelands.
“It’s not just a meeting but a chance to see the beauty of the United States. For many, perhaps, they will never come here again,” she said.
“We are very grateful for the sisters of Mount St. Macrina who have opened their hearts and their doors. They have been most gracious.’