44. We must mention, too, the outstanding merits of the religious societies
both of men and women, whose work in these matters brought too great spiritual
profit. We will speak first of the monasteries of Basilian monks and nuns. In
the time of the emperor Joseph II of Austria they had suffered great harm from
the invasion of the civil power into their affairs, but later, in 1882 and the
following years, they were restored to their glory by the reform of Dobromil,
as it is called; they join an ardent apostolic zeal to the love of the life of
seclusion and the inspiration from on high which they draw from the rules and
example of their holy founder. To these old monastic communities have been
added equally praiseworthy new religious societies of men and women; such are
the Order of Studites, whose monks devote themselves above all to heavenly
contemplation and works of holy penance, and the religious congregation of the
Holy Redeemer, of the Ruthenian rite, whose members work most fruitfully both
in Galicia and in Canada. Finally, there are many institutes of religious women
- the Servants of Mary Immaculate, the Myrrhbearers (Myrophorae), the Sisters
of St. Joseph, of St. Josaphat, of the Holy Family, of St. Vincent de Paul--who
work for the education of girls and undertake the care of the sick.
|