BLESSED OLHA BIDA

Bl. Olha Bida

Feast day: April 2
Birth: 1903
Death: 1952
Beatified: Pope John Paul II


The Servant of God Sr Olympia Bida was born in 1903 in the village of Tsebliv, Lviv District. She entered the Sisters of St Joseph and served In various towns and villages as a teacher of catechism, director of novices, attendant to the aged and infirm. She had a special charism for youth and personally attended to the education of a number of young women. She was appointed superior of the convent in the town of Kheriv, and did her best to see to the spiritual and social needs of the people in spite of the Communist pressure surrounding their work. In 1951, she was arrested with two other sisters, imprisoned for a while, then exiled to the Tomsk region of Siberia.

Under conditions of heavy forced labour, Sr Olympia tried to perform her duties as superior and organized her sisters and other sisters in other camps to come together and to pray and support each other. Succumbing to a serious illness, she died on 28 January 1952.