Mission Staff at the Source of Their Patroness’s Activity

From April 17 to 20, the staff of the Good Samaritan Mission made a pilgrimage to Saint Petersburg to become more closely acquainted with the person and activities of St. Uršula Leduchoŭskaja.

Saint Ursula is the founder of the Order of the Ursuline Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the patroness of our Mission. Saint Petersburg is where the history of her work begins. In 1907, Leduchoŭskaja came to Russia to take over the management of a boarding school for girls studying at the gymnasium attached to the parish of St. Catherine. It was from here that the Ursuline order began to emerge and realize its charism. Today, the Ursulines operate in 14 countries worldwide (Poland, Italy, France, Germany, Finland, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, the Philippines, Tanzania). Their mission in the Church is the education and upbringing of children and youth. The sisters also provide assistance where it is especially needed.

St. Ursula is well-known in the field of pedagogy and education. The methods she used remain relevant to this day. It is following her example that the staff of our Mission wish to carry out their service in working with children and youth.

The pilgrimage participants visited the parish of St. Catherine of Alexandria, spent time in places where St. Ursula worked, and became acquainted with the contemporary activities of the Ursuline Sisters community in Saint Petersburg. An important part of the pilgrimage was a trip to the Gulf of Finland, on the shore of which, at a place calledMerentahti, there once stood a school founded by St. Ursula. The pilgrims spent a reflective day there, the central part of which was the Eucharist.