Sister Irenea Hankewych, OSBM, fell asleep in the Lord on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, at Holy Redeemer Hospital. She was 87.
Born Martha Hankewych on May 20, 1939, in Borshchiv, Ukraine, she came to the United States with her parents in 1949. On September 4, 1966, she entered the community of the Sisters of the Order of Saint Basil the Great. She professed her first vows on May 28, 1969, and made her solemn profession on July 28, 1974, taking the religious name Sister Irenea.
For more than five decades, Sister Irenea served as an educator and school administrator in Ukrainian Catholic communities in Philadelphia, Hamtramck, New York City, Parma, and Chicago. She served as principal of St. Josaphat School in Parma from 1991 to 1996 and of St. Nicholas School in Chicago from 1997 to 2018. In 2020, she returned to the Sisters’ Motherhouse in Fox Chase Manor, Pennsylvania, where she lived until her passing. Sister Irenea also generously shared her knowledge of the Ukrainian language, assisting priests with writing and translating homilies. Following the restoration of Ukraine’s independence, she spent many summers serving in Ivano-Frankivsk, particularly at the seminary and the Spiritual Institute.
🕯 Viewing and Parastas
Sunday, July 19
Viewing at 6:00 PM
Parastas at 6:30 PM
Holy Trinity Chapel (710 Fox Chase Road, Jenkintown, PA 19046)
✝ Funeral Divine Liturgy
Monday, July 20, at 11:00 AM
The Funeral Divine Liturgy will take place at Holy Trinity Chapel, followed by burial in the convent cemetery.
We ask the faithful to remember Sister Irenea in their prayers. With deep gratitude, we honor her profound and faithful service to the Church and to countless people through her consecrated life, educational ministry, work within the Ukrainian community, and dedicated service in Ukraine.
May the Lord receive her into His eternal Kingdom and grant her rest among the saints.
Metropolitan Borys Gudziak expressed his condolences following the repose of Sister Irenea Hankevych, OSBM, offering prayers for her eternal rest and comfort to her family and the Basilian Sisters:
“It is with sadness, yet with the Christian hope in the Resurrection, that I received the news of the return to the house of the Heavenly Father of Sister Irenea Hankevych. On behalf of the clergy and faithful of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia, please accept heartfelt condolences and assurance of our prayers for the repose of her soul.
Coming from a devout family, Sister Irenea dedicated her life to the Lord in the service of others in the Order of Sisters of Saint Basil the Great for over half a century. Committed to the teaching of children, she followed the Lord in service to those whom He had placed on her path. Having left her homeland in the midst of World War II as an infant, she came back to help when the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church and Ukraine were freed from the tyranny of Soviet occupation. She served faithfully into her advanced years before returning to the Motherhouse in Fox Chase, PA.
May the Lord reward her for her dedication and monastic labors. May Mary, the Mother of God and our Mother, comfort you in this time of grief.
In blessed repose, grant eternal rest, O Lord, to the soul of your departed servant Sister Irenea… and render her memory eternal!
Вічная Їй пам’ять!”
