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ALICIA PATTERSON FOUNDATION http://aliciapatterson.org

Importing Nuns to Save American Monasteries

Cheryl Reed

APF Fellow

1998
© 2001 Cheryl Reed
Provincial Sister Dorothy Ann Busowski sits in the Philadelphia chapel of St. Basil's that she helped rebuild.
From left, Natalie Taraschanska, 20, Luba Beley, 23, Mariana Romanivna, 21, and Olexandra Pryimych, 32, sit in the living room of the six-bedroom house the sisters from St. Basil bought as an investment and to house the Ukrainian women they hope will join their order.
Natalie Taraschanska sings during a prayer service in the chapel.
Postulant Barbara Jean Terefenko, 62, came to the convent after her husband, an American-born Ukrainian, died. Shortly after his death, she said she heard a voice telling her to enter the convent. She is struggling to learn Ukrainian.
An unveiled young woman, Olexandra Pryimych, 21, from the Ukraine, stands during evening prayers with the elderly sisters in the St. Basil's community.
A sister with failing eyesight spends payer times in an alcove outside St. Basil's chapel. Behind her are eastern icons used to commemorate each week of the year.
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