Dominicans celebrate 25 years as religious sisters on feast day

The Solemnity of St. Dominic, celebrated on Aug. 8, is a special day for Columbus St. Patrick Church.

St. Dominic founded the Dominican order, the Order of Preachers. Until 1824, the only priests in Ohio were Dominicans. The order has served St. Patrick Church in downtown Columbus since 1885.

This year, the Solemnity of St. Dominic was also special for two Dominican sisters, Sister Andrea Andrzejewska and Sister Leonarda Zielinska, Dominican Sisters of the Immaculate Conception Province, who celebrated their 25th jubilee of professing vows in the Order of Preachers.

Both sisters renewed their vows of poverty, chastity and obedience during a Mass celebrated at St. Patrick Church.

“We give thanks to God for the witness of St. Dominic and beg his prayers for us and for his Order of Preachers,” Father Stephen Alcott, OP, the pastor of St. Patrick, said in his homily. “And we give thanks to God especially for the men and women who have come to follow in his footsteps: 

“Our Dominican sisters, especially Sister Leonarda and Sister Andrea, who celebrate their 25th anniversary of their profession of vows in the Order of Preachers.”

St. Dominic, who was born in Spain, founded the Order of Preachers in France in 1216. Before St. Dominic was conceived, his mother, Blessed Jane of Aza, had a dream of a dog running with a flaming torch in its mouth, setting the world on fire.

Blessed Jane prayed about the dream at a Benedictine abbey, and later, the dream proved prophetic, as she conceived a son, St. Dominic, who ignited the world on fire through preaching and his desire to gain souls for Christ.

The word “Dominican” comes from the Latin words Domini canes, meaning “dogs of the Lord.” St. Dominic is often depicted in paintings and statues standing beside a dog.

“Dominic was only one man from a small town in Spain,” Father Alcott said. “And the darkness of error and ignorance of the faith in his own time was overwhelming, but because he allowed the light of Christ to shine through him, he became that bright reference point in a chaotic world that drew many souls to the eternal shores of salvation.”

St. Dominic sought to combat the Albigensian heresy, which he encountered in southern France. The Albigenses believed in the existence of two principles: good and evil. They believed that the bad principle created the human body, and the good principle, God, created the soul, which was imprisoned in the body and must be liberated.

The Albigenses favored suicide, often through starvation, as a way to free the soul. They advocated against marriage and sought the extinction of bodily life.

“While we don’t hear much of Albigensians anymore, we do find ourselves in a culture where the living Christian faith has become more scarce, and there are many who have absorbed from a secular culture a way of life that cannot bring them into the presence of the deepest truths or into authentic and lasting joy,” Father Alcott said.

“When the darkness grows deeper, sometimes the light of a Christian life lived in self-giving love and authentic faith and joy shines all the more brightly.”

St. Dominic was a reference point for others, Father Alcott said. By seeking to draw people back to the truth of the Christian faith through his words and example, St. Dominic helped to light a fire, which would spread, as his mother’s dream foretold, across Europe and eventually throughout the world.

“Each of us, in our own vocations, in humbly living with charity the life God has traced out for us, can be that bright reference point for another,” Father Alcott said.

Sister Andrea and Sister Leonarda, through their vocation as Dominican sisters following in the footsteps of St. Dominic, have dedicated themselves to bringing the light of Christ to others.

Sister Leonarda, who serves as the director of religious education at St. Patrick Church, came to Columbus in 2013, and Sister Andrea, who arrived in 2021, serves as a project manager and executive assistant for the diocesan Office of Catholic Schools. Both are originally from Poland.

Sister Andrea and Sister Leonarda entered the Congregation of Sisters of St. Dominic in Poland and were sent to the Immaculate Conception Province in the United States. 

Religious orders are often divided into various regions, known as provinces. A province can encompass an entire nation, or there can be several provinces within a country.

In the United States, the Immaculate Conception Province has a convent in Columbus on Livingston Avenue, where Sister Andrea and Sister Leonarda live with other sisters in their community.

God “deserves our gratitude every second of our lives, but the 25th jubilee is a great milestone and the occasion to give Him thanks and praise together with the whole Church,” Sister Andrea said.

“Sister Leonarda and I had the opportunity to do that on Aug. 8 at St. Patrick parish downtown. We were so blessed to be surrounded by so many people who joined us in prayers of thanksgiving for the 25th year of our religious life.”

Reflecting on her vocation, Sister Andrea recalled her journey to accepting God’s call for her life.

“I never wanted to become a sister,” she said. “I wanted to have a ‘normal’ young adult life. However, the more I wanted to resist God’s calling, the stronger I heard His invitation, especially during prayers. 

“During that time, I was working in a bank. Unemployment in my family town was 17 percent. I knew that if I would join the community and discern later that it wasn’t what I thought, the chances of getting a job were nearly zero. 

“But God acts in mysterious ways, and He gives enough graces to fulfill His will. His love helped me to overcome my fear.”

As a religious sister, Sister Andrea was first sent to the sisters’ house in Czestochowa, Poland, which she considered one of her “biggest blessings.” She studied English and had the opportunity to visit the shrine of the Black Madonna every day for a year. 

The image, also known as Our Lady of Czestochowa, is believed to have been painted by St. Luke.

“God blessed me with many gifts and graces,” Sister Andrea said. “He also allowed many challenges in my life to teach me how to trust Him wholeheartedly.”

In 2000, the general superior of the Congregation  of Sisters of St. Dominic in Poland came to Czestochowa to ask Sister Andrea if she would go to the United States.

“I was very surprised because, in my congregation, only perpetually professed sisters  were sent to other countries at that time,” she said.

Perpetual vows are typically professed six to nine years after the profession of the first vows. Sister Andrea had renewed her temporary vows before she came to the United States.

“Mother General gave me some time to think and pray about it, but I did not have any doubts. I had entered the congregation with an open heart and was willing to undertake almost anything … except becoming an organist.

“And, on the vigil of the solemnity of Our Lady of Czestochowa (what a coincidence!) , I departed to the United States.”

Sister Andrea lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for 20 years. She returned to Poland for one year and professed her perpetual vows in 2005, and then she returned to the United States. 

While in Milwaukee, Sister Andrea studied at Marquette University and then served as a nursing home administrator for 14 years. She began serving in the field of education upon moving to Columbus.

Sister Leonarda began discerning a religious vocation in high school, she said, and entered the Congregation of Sisters of St. Dominic  after graduating. 

“I am grateful for all the graces received through those 25 years of religious life,” she said. “God works miracles in our lives if we let Him do so. I know that, if asked 25 years ago, I would never imagine my life to be what it is now. 

“God is good, and He will lead us to visit places we would not expect to see, to meet people we would never expect to meet and to do things we never dreamt of doing.”

After professing vows as a religious sister, Sister Leonarda spent time in various houses  of the congregation in Poland, she said, teaching religion and studying for her master’s degree in theology.

Sister Leonarda was sent to the congregation’s Provincial House in Justice, Illinois, southwest of Chicago, after completing her theology studies. She studied English at a local college and served at a nursing home run by the sisters.

Sister Leonarda moved again when a new house for their community opened in Columbus.

“What attracted me to the Congregation of Sisters of St. Dominic was the union of the contemplative and active life,” she said.

Unlike Dominican cloistered nuns, who live contemplative lives and their ministry is centered within a monastery, Dominican sisters actively minister within the world.

“If you say ‘yes’ to God, your life will never be boring,” Sister Leonarda said. “It will not be easy, untroubled, free of struggles and pain, but it will be an exciting adventure. Trust God, do not be afraid and see miracles happen.”

The first Dominican Sisters of the Immaculate Conception Province came to Chicago from Poland in 1925 to serve Poles in North America. The early years of their provincial history were marked by challenges and hardships, but the sisters remained committed to service and evangelization, and they entrusted themselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

The sisters acquired land in Justice in 1936, their first permanent foundation in the United States, and shortly afterward, the community expanded to Milwaukee. 

In 1951, the sisters received permission to become the Immaculate Conception Province in America. Today, the province has additional sites in Arkansas and Canada.