On May 8 We Celebrate the Feast of Blessed Miriam Teresa Demjanovich, SC
On May 8 We Celebrate the Feast of Blessed Miriam Teresa Demjanovich, SC
Early Life and Family Background
Teresa Demjanovich, later known as Sister Miriam Teresa, was born on March 26, 1901, in Bayonne, New Jersey, as the youngest of seven children to Alexander and Johanna Demjanovich. Her parents were devout Byzantine-Ruthenian Catholics who emigrated from Ruthenia, a region now part of eastern Slovakia. She was baptized, confirmed, and received her first communion in the Byzantine Rite, reflecting her family’s spiritual heritage.
The Demjanovich family lived near the oil refineries that dominated the landscape of Bayonne. Teresa demonstrated academic excellence early, graduating as salutatorian from Bayonne High School (then located where Robinson School stands today) in 1917. Initially aspiring to become a Carmelite, Teresa stayed home to care for her ailing mother, who tragically passed away during the influenza pandemic of 1918. Encouraged by her family, Teresa enrolled at the College of Saint Elizabeth in Convent Station, New Jersey, in September 1919, where she majored in literature and graduated summa cum laude in 1923.
A Period of Discernment
Teresa longed for religious life but faced uncertainty about which community to join. She accepted a teaching position at the Academy of Saint Aloysius in Jersey City, where her humility, piety, and dedication to prayer left a lasting impression. Known for her devotion to the Rosary, she was an active member of her local parish choir, the Sodality of Our Lady, and participated in the National Catholic Welfare Conference.
In the summer and fall of 1924, Teresa prayed fervently to discern her vocation. Though initially drawn to the Carmelite community, health concerns delayed her application. Following a novena for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, she decided to join the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth. On February 11, 1925, the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, she entered the congregation and received the habit on May 17, 1925, taking the name Sister Miriam Teresa. Despite joining a Roman Rite congregation, she remained a Byzantine Rite Catholic.
Teaching and Spiritual Writings
As a postulant and novice between 1925 and 1926, Sister Miriam Teresa continued teaching at the Academy of Saint Aloysius. Her spiritual director, Father Benedict Bradley, O.S.B., recognized her deep spirituality and asked her to write a series of conferences for the novitiate. These 26 conferences, rich in theological insight, were published posthumously under the title Greater Perfection. The writings emphasized the universal call to holiness, a theme later echoed in the Second Vatican Council’s Lumen Gentium, and taught that union with God is attainable by all, regardless of their vocation.
Illness and Passing
In November 1926, Sister Miriam Teresa’s health began to deteriorate. After a tonsillectomy, she struggled to recover and was later diagnosed with physical and nervous exhaustion, myocarditis, and acute appendicitis. Despite her declining condition, she made her religious profession in articulo mortis (in danger of death) on April 2, 1927. Following surgery for appendicitis on May 6, she passed away on May 8, 1927, at the age of 26.
Her funeral was held on May 11 at Holy Family Chapel in Convent Station, New Jersey. She was interred in Holy Family Cemetery on the grounds of the Sisters of Charity’s motherhouse.
Path to Beatification
Sister Miriam Teresa’s cause for canonization began in the 1940s, with the Ordinary Processes concluding in the 1970s. Her writings and example inspired many to pursue holiness in everyday life. A miraculous healing attributed to her intercession—the restoration of sight to a boy suffering from macular degeneration—was recognized by the Vatican. This miracle led to her beatification by Pope Francis. On October 4, 2014, at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, New Jersey, the beatification ceremony presided over by Cardinal Angelo Amato, S.D.B., the first to be held on U.S. soil, was held.
Legacy and Inspiration
Blessed Miriam Teresa Demjanovich’s short but impactful life continues to inspire through her profound spiritual insights and unwavering commitment to God’s will. Her writings in Greater Perfection remain a testament to the universal call to holiness and the possibility of attaining union with God in all walks of life. Her story serves as a timeless reminder of the sanctity achievable in the ordinary and the extraordinary alike.
Chronology
- March 26, 1901: The last of seven children of Alexander and Johanna (Szuchy), Teresa Demjanovich was born in Bayonne, NJ. Her parents had emigrated from what is now northeastern Slovakia.
- March 31, 1901: Teresa was baptized and confirmed according to the Byzantine-Ruthenian Rite of the Catholic Church in Saint John the Baptist Church in Bayonne.
- 1905-1917: Teresa and her siblings attended the Bayonne public schools. Additionally she participated in two hours of religious instruction each day in the church basement where she was prepared to participate in the Divine Liturgy and learned the Cyrillic alphabet in order to be able to read prayer books in the Old Slavonic language.
- January 1917: Always a superior student, at the age of sixteen Teresa delivered the salutatory address at the commencement exercises at Bayonne High School. As her mother’s health failed, teenage Teresa’s life was focused on her family, managing the household and caring for her mother.
- September 1919: After her mother’s death Teresa followed her family’s wishes and entered the College of Saint Elizabeth, Convent Station, NJ.
- June 14, 1923: A Bachelor of Literature degree summa cum laude was awarded to Teresa.
- September 1923: Teresa taught Latin and English at the Academy of Saint Aloysius in Jersey City, NJ.
- February 11, 1925: Having delayed her entrance to religious life due to her father’s brief illness and subsequent death, Teresa entered the Nazareth Novitiate of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth in Convent Station on the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.
- May 17, 1925: With the reception of the novice’s habit, Teresa took the name Sister Miriam Teresa in honor of the Blessed Mother and Saint Theresa of Avila. She also had a deep devotion to Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, who was canonized that day.
- 1925 – 1926: As a postulant and a novice Sister Miriam Teresa taught at the Academy of Saint Elizabeth in Convent Station. During her two years as a Sister of Charity, Sister Miriam Teresa wrote two short plays, letters, meditations, several poems and part of her autobiography.
- June 1926: Reverend Benedict Bradley, O.S.B., Sister Miriam Teresa’s spiritual director and confessor, requested that she write the conferences that he would give to the novices. He stated that, “I believed that she enjoyed extraordinary lights, and I knew that she was living an exemplary life…I thought that one day she would be ranked among the saints of God, and I felt it was incumbent upon me to utilize whatever might contribute to an appreciation of her merits after her death.”
- Winter 1927: Sister Miriam Teresa’s health failed and she was hospitalized several times.
- April 2, 1927: Sister Miriam Teresa took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience in articulo mortis in Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital, Elizabeth, NJ.
- May 8, 1927: Sister Miriam Teresa died in Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital, Elizabeth, NJ, after a brief illness.
- May 1927: A notice signed by Reverend Benedict Bradley, O.S.B., Sister Miriam Teresa’s spiritual director and confessor, was posted on the Sisters’ bulletin board in the Motherhouse. It read, “The conferences which I have been giving to the Sisters were written by Sister Miriam Teresa.”
- 1928: Greater Perfection: Being the Spiritual Conferences of Sister Miriam Teresa, edited by Reverend Charles C. Demjanovich, was published by P. J. Kenedy & Sons.
- 1936: Sister Miriam Teresa, a biography written by A Sister of Charity (Sister Mary Zita Geis, S.C.), was published.
- December 11, 1945: The Most Reverend Thomas H. McLaughlin, Bishop of Paterson, issued a decree beginning an informative study on the life and virtues of Sister Miriam Teresa.
- Summer 1946: The Sister Miriam Teresa League of Prayer was established at Convent Station by Mother M. Benita in order to “honor Our Lord Jesus Christ by spreading the knowledge of Sister Miriam Teresa’s life and mission, and by working for the cause of her beatification.”
- 1953 – 1954: The Ecclesiastical Curia of the Diocese of Paterson began the three-part Process for Beatification and Canonization.
- November 7, 1976: Reverend Monsignor Charles C. Demjanovich, the brother and close friend of Sister Miriam Teresa, died in Saint Mary’s Hospital, Passaic.
- May 8 and 9, 1979: On the 52nd anniversary of her death the exhumation, canonical examination and relocation of the remains of Sister Miriam Teresa took place without any expression of public cult. The casket containing Sister Miriam Teresa’s remains was transferred to a crypt in Holy Family Chapel.
- June 19, 1980: Pope John Paul II signed a decree introducing the Cause of the Servant of God, Miriam Teresa Demjanovich, as an Apostolic Process.
- April 5, 1981: The Stations of the Cross were placed in Nazareth Park. Located in a wooded area at Convent, Nazareth Park displays meditations written by Sister Miriam Teresa.
- 1999: The Positio super virtutibus was submitted to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. The Positio, prepared over a period of ten years by Sister Francis Maria Cassidy, S. C., and Sister Eileen Dolan, S.C., describes the life and virtues of Sister Miriam Teresa.
- May 28, 1999: The Congregation for the Causes of Saints decreed the legal validity of the Process for Beatification and Canonization.
- May 10, 2012: The Congregation for the Causes of Saints, with the concurrence of Pope Benedict XVI, declared that Sister Miriam Teresa had exercised heroic virtues and is entitled to the title of “Venerable.”
- July 12, 2013: After exhaustive study, the cure of eight-year-old Michael Mencer’s irreversible juvenile macular degeneration in the 1960s was accepted as medically inexplicable by panels of ophthalmologists in Rome and in the U.S.A.
- December 17, 2013: The Congregation for the Causes of the Saints determined that the miraculous restoration of sight to Michael Mercer occurred by prayer through the intercession of Venerable Sister Miriam Teresa. The Congregation recommended to Pope Francis that Venerable Sister Miriam Teresa be beatified.
- October 4, 2014: At the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, NJ, Sister Miriam Teresa was declared “Blessed” during a beatification ceremony presided over by Angelo Cardinal Amato, S.D.B., Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints. In recognition of her holy life.
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