Studite Sisters

Studite Sisters (студитки; studytky). An order of nuns who follow the Studite rules. Originally centered in Yaktoriv, Peremyshliany county, Galicia, the sisters maintained residences near Lviv and Ternopil as well as in Pidhaitsi. They ran child-care facilities and orphanages in addition to farming, sewing, and making church goods. Before the Second World War a total of 72 sisters belonged to the order. All of them remained in Ukraine following the Soviet occupation of Galicia, but the order was dissolved, and their superior, Sister Yosyfa, was sentenced to 30 years in a forced labor camp. In emigration the Studite Sisters maintain small communities in Krefeld-Traar and Altenbeken, Germany, and Dundalk, Ontario, Canada.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]