Blessed Josaphata Hordashevska (1869-1919)

Josaphata wanted her Congregation to be a light for the poor people, who at that time were spiritually and socially neglected. The Servant Sisters cared for the sick, founded shelters for children, taught catechism to young people and adults, looked after abandoned churches in villages and sewed priestly robes.

Seeing how the peasants often suffered from diseases and having brought a book from Lviv about medicinal herbs and their use, Josaphata walked the fields with the Sisters, looking for suitable medicinal plants, and she herself prepared medicine from them. And when the community of nuns became larger, it sent novices to nursing courses. With the appearance of the Sisters in the village, grateful villagers stopped turning to fortune-tellers and healers for help, and sister Josaphata herself was called "our good sister-doctor."

The development of the Congregation was remarkable; after 10 years there were already 123 sisters in 23 houses. In those years, the Sisters went to Canada, Croatia, and Brazil. Today, the Servant Sisters carry out their mission in 16 countries; the newest mission is based in Kazakhstan.

The saintliness of the Servant of God Josaphata is that she faithfully performed her daily tasks, constantly fulfilling in her life the commandment of love for God and neighbor. The daily memory of Christ gave her the strength to calmly endure many problems. Josaphata died on April 7, 1919.

Josaphata speaks to modern people about the beauty of a radical life according to the Gospel and the need for compassion and solidarity with those in need. She shows that even small acts of love can change the world.

"There are as many roads that lead to the knowledge of His greatness and Presence in the life of each of us, as many people as there are. And how good it is when your personal path is on a vast and wide road, favorably paved with hundreds or even thousands of feet of those who walked before you. And quite the opposite, when it winds along a narrow path under the feet of a pioneer. To such service, the Lord calls those who with special humility trust in His boundless mercy and willingly and self-sacrificingly throw themselves into the maelstrom of the daily struggle for the affirmation of God's justice in the service of the most poor and needy. And it often happens that such courage is revealed in a gentle smile, a dignified word and fragile hands of a woman".