Blessed Miriam Teresa Demjanovich

Born: March 26, 1901
Death: May 8. 1927
Cause for Sainthood opened: 1945
Declared Blessed: October 4, 2014

Blessed Sister Miriam Teresa Demjanovich was born in 1901 and baptized into the Byzantine Rite of the Catholic Church. She desired from a young age to dedicate her life to God, planning on joining the Carmelites after her high school graduation. Religious life was delayed to care for her ailing mother and after her death, Teresa went on to study at the College of St. Elizabeth from 1919-1923. She accepted a teaching position at an all girls high school, Academy of St. Aloysius, run by the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth. Joining the sisters, she continued to teach as a postulant and novice from 1925-1926. In 1926, her Spiritual Director, Father Benedict Bradley, OSB asked her to write the conferences for the novitiate. Her 26 conferences were published, post-mortem, in a collection called Greater Perfection. Falling ill at age 25, her final vows were taken in articulo mortis (danger of death), just one month before she died. Her beatification in 2014 was the first ever to be held on U.S. soil.

Read about her life of quiet devotion to God’s will, no matter the path it took her.

Prayer for Canonization of Blessed Miriam Teresa Demjanovich

Most Holy and Blessed Trinity, Whom Blessed Miriam Teresa loved so ardently, grant that we, like her, may become ever more conscious of Your Divine Presence within our souls. We implore You to continue to show signs that Your humble servant enjoys glory with You in Heaven, and to hasten the day when we may render her a lasting tribute of our veneration and love.