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The 70th anniversary of the Centralization of the Order is a great opportunity to remember our predecessors, the members of the first Administrations. One of them is Mother Vasylia Sivch (1894-1969) - the first European Provincial Superior and General Counselor in 1954-1967.
 
Veronica Sivch was born on February 21, 1894 in the village of Ruski Kerestur (now Serbia). Her blood sister, Anna, was also a Basilian sister with the monastic name of Sister Ambrosia. In Kerestur, Veronica graduated from the 4th grade of a public school. After that, her family moved to the village Pishkorevtsi in Slavonia (now Croatia), where Veronica continued her studies. From an early age she showed a great ability for handicrafts and singing. She had a beautiful soprano voice.
On September 17, 1909, together with her sister Anna, she went to Yavoriv in Galicia, to the boarding school of the Basilian Sisters for further studies at the Private Women's Teachers' Seminary of the Basilian Sisters in Yavoriv.
The Chronicle of the Yavoriv Monastery,1909 states:
“On September 17, two sisters, Verona and Anna Sivch, were accepted to our institution. They were born in Kerestur from Slavonia, so called Bachka, where our people from Transcarpathia settled as colonists, during the reign of the Austrian Emperor Joseph II. Both sisters applied for admission to the convent, but because of their young age and not knowing our language, they were placed in the institute, where they attended school for 3 years. His Eminence Rev. Dionysius Nyaradi, Bishop of Kryzhevtsi, took care of the accommodation of the children from Bachka in Yavoriv.”
On August 5, 1912, together with her sister, Veronica entered the novitiate in Yavoriv. On February 8, 1913, she and her sister Ambrosia dressed in monastic robes, both candidates for choral nuns. On February 28, 1914, both sisters took temporary vows and continued their teacher education, which was interrupted during the novitiate. At the end of August 1914, the Russian troops, advancing, approached Yavoriv, so Superior M. Josaphata Teodorovych decided to send the young sisters home. Unable to leave for Bachka, Sisters Vasylia and Ambrosia Sivch leave together with Sr. Emilia Tymochko and Sr. Magdalena Chychula to the village Voroblevychi (Drohobych district of Lviv region in Ukraine). Only 7 sisters and 2 candidates remained in Yavoriv. Soon, when it became calmer, the sisters returned to Yavoriv. On August 5, 1917, Sr. Vasylia made a solemn profession of Final Vows in the presence of the visitator Fr. Mark Galushchinsky OSBM. On June 17, 1918, both Sivch sisters passed the maturity exam.
Until 1947 Mother Vasylia served at various houses of the Yavoriv Monastery as a teacher, prefect of children and superior: during 1919-1929 and 1939-1947 she was Superior in Przemyśl. In 1919 M. Vasylia was appointed the Superior and teacher in Przemyśl (this monastery was opened as a branch house of Yavoriv in 1902, in that time it was a part of Ukraine, but now it is Poland). Also, during 1929-1936 she was the Superior and worked as a teacher in Drohobych (the monastery was founded in 1921). In 1936-1939 she ministered in Vysotsko Nyzhnie, Lviv region in Ukraine.
On July 9, 1929, at the Local Council she was elected as one of the three advisers to the Yavoriv Superior M. Emelia Tymochko. As Superior of the monastery in Drohobych M. Vasylia took part in the General Council in Yavoriv in December 1931. The monastery in Drohobych in 1932 was going through difficult times, especially because of a financial crisis and threats from the communists, as we can see from the letters of M. Vasylia to the Sisters in America:
"We suffered a lot, both morally and materially, during the World War, so we cannot keep our financial balance. And the current crisis has undermined us well - so that every day the ground under our feet is removed ... There is a danger that we will lose our school. “
In 1934 M. Vasylia was reappointed Superior of Drohobych and from 1939 she was the Superior in Przemyśl. The most difficult times came for Ukrainians in Przemyśl after the arrival of the communists in 1944–1946. On June 26, 1946, the Polish police forcibly evicted Bishop Josaphat Kotsylowski from Przemyśl and handed him over to the NKVD. Later, Auxiliary Bishop Hryhoriy Lakota and the vast majority of the clergy were sent to the USSR. These tragic events are described by Mother Vasylia in her memoirs ``The Last Days of Ukrainian Przemyśl'' (Sivch V. The Last Days of Ukrainian Przemyśl / In the Field of Christ. Memoirs. - New York: Basilian Publishing House. - 1978. - P. 157-209.)
When the Polish authorities liquidated the monastery of the Basilian Sisters in Przemyśl, M. Vasylia left for Yugoslavia. According to the testimonies, for some time (1947-1949) she was in Prešov (then Czechoslovakia), and in 1949 she came to her brother in the village Pishkorevtsi (Yugoslavia, now Croatia) that is near the Basilian monastery in Osijek. At that time, after the death of M. Lyubov Provchi, the monastery in Osijek was temporarily managed by Mother Joseph Gralyuk. On August 15, 1949 at the Local Council chaired by Fr. Burdyak OSBM, Mother Vasylia Sivch was elected the new Superior.
Mother Vasylia was noted for her extraordinary love for liturgical singing, she had a beautiful voice and abilities, and taught the sisters choral singing.
In the process of centralization of the Basilian Sisters in 1951, she was appointed as the first Provincial of the new European Province with a center in Osijek which was formed according to the Papal Decree of July 19, 1951.
In 1954 she was a delegate to the General Chapter in America, where she was elected General Councilor. From America she went to Rome. In 1963 M. Vasylia was reelected as General Councilor. On February 23, 1964, the Golden Jubilee of Mother Vasylia Sivch’s Final Vows took place in Osijek. Due to multiple sclerosis in 1967, she was forced to return from Rome to Osijek (she was temporarily replaced by Sr. Evstahiya Torkonyak in 1967-1971).
In 1969, during an epidemic in Osijek, she contracted influenza and pneumonia. She passed away on December 14, 1969 and was buried on December 16, 1969 in Osijek.

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