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Mother Kolumba Białecka, Foundress of the Dominican Sisters in Poland, was born on August 23, 1838. Her life is an example of patient suffering, enduring perseverance, and great humility. From early childhood, she ardently desired to consecrate her life to God. Her father, Franciszek, however, was initially disapproving, causing young Roża much grief, and exacerbating her tuberculosis. Fearing her daughter’s grave health decline, Franciszek finally acquiesced, hoping for God’s mercy and his daughter’s healing. Miraculously, Roża regained her strength and at the age of 19, entered the novitiate of the Dominican Sisters in Nancy, France. She was advised at that time by the Master General of the Dominican Order, Father Alexandre Vincent Jandel, who saw in her the potential of being a foundress of a new congregation. Fr. Jandel concurrently was trying to revive the Order in Europe. After Sr. Kolumba’s first profession, she returned to her native country to lay the foundations of the Dominican Sisters.
Unfortunately, Mother Kolumba suffered backlash, and support for her cause was slow-going. She was only 23 at the time, and people thought her presumptuous for trying to found an order. But God’s Providence never failed her, and she eventually began her work.
Mother Kolumba’s congregation is marked by its Eucharistic and Marian spiritualities. The sisters’ great love for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and Our Lady was bequeathed to them by their foundress, who would often spend entire nights in prayer before the Eucharist, making all her decisions at the foot of the tabernacle. She desired Eucharistic devotion to be a distinctive character of the Congregation and so, she specifically asked permission from her pastor for her sisters to frequent the reception of the Holy Eucharist, which was unconventional at the time.
Mother counseled her daughters to spend “one hour every Thursday night in private adoration of the Divine Master, hidden under the Eucharistic veil.” She bade them to aspire to holiness, to practice Christ-like charity toward the poor and the disadvantaged; to be prayerful, hospitable, and grateful. “Thank God for everything,” she would say, “and be grateful to friends and benefactors for even the smallest kindness shown to us.”
Mother Kolumba’s expression of Dominican Spirituality is a beautiful blend of the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. She sought to educate and teach catechesis, while at the same time made provisions for the physical needs of the poor peasants in her day. In 1863, Poland was crushed by the Russian invasion, which led Mother Kolumba with her sisters to attend to the sick and the dying, even burying the dead. She improvised hospitals for the wounded and shelters for the widows and the children. She sought to bring comfort and consolation everywhere she went.
When Mother Kolumba died at the age of 49, on March 18, 1887, due to complications from tuberculosis, there was general grief and sorrow throughout the towns and villages of Poland. But there was also great hope that she would continue her mission of kindness and charity from Heaven. Today, Mother Kolumba’s Congregation continue to flourish in Eurasia, Africa, and North America. Her charism was brought to the United States in 1925 by her sisters. Today, her sisters in the Dominican Sisters, Immaculate Conception Province continue to expand the legacy God entrusted Mother Kolumba with the provincial house being located in Justice, Illinois.
