Korostyshiv, a town of 15,000 inhabitants located 30 km from Zhytomyr, is known in Ukraine for its rich deposits of granite.
There two Pallottine Missionary Sisters – Sr. Galina Klimenchuk and Sr. Galina Soroczynska – live in an ordinary block of flats. The sisters minister in the Parish of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, run by the Salesian Fathers, the only Catholic parish in Korostyshiv. Until recently it had more than 400 worshippers.
Today there are about 300, as some left in fear of war and others died defending their homeland. Four Holy Masses are celebrated on Sundays and two during the week.
Sr. Galina Klimenczuk is the superior of the community and teaches religion to pre and primary school children from grades 1-4. There is also the Polish Language School at our community, which is attended by 50 students. Sr. Galina is a teacher at this school and has classes with 7 groups. She is fluent in Polish as she studied theology at the Catholic University of Lublin. The school uses the premises of the Salesian Youth Centre, which it rents. Children there learn the Polish language and Polish history. They also have singing and dancing classes to prepare performances for Polish national holidays: 11 November and 3 May. Most of the children come from families with Polish roots. Sr. Galina finds funds for the school activities from Polish organisations, which also sponsor the best-performing students’ trips to Poland for integration camps. The last one took place in Poznan in the summer and was attended by 10 students from Korostyshiv. 
The children also go with Sr. Galina to Polish memorial sites in Ukraine, such as Bykovnia near Kiev, where nearly 3,500 Polish officers were killed by Russians in 1940.
Sr. Galina Soroczynska takes care of the parish sacristy, arranges flowers and prepares decorations. She also teaches catechesis in the parish to children in grades 5 to 11. Every Wednesday she prepares adults to receive the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and matrimony. Since the outbreak of the war, there have been more cases of Orthodox people making a profession of faith in the Catholic Church and those returning to religious practice. On Thursdays, Sr. Galina meets with an adult Bible and prayer group. During the pandemic period, the meetings were suspended, but this year the people in the group themselves asked for them to be resumed. In May and October, Sr. Galina organises bus pilgrimages to the Marian Shrine in Dowbysz for the feast of Our Lady of Fatima and also to the Shrine of Our Lady of the Scapular of the Carmelite Fathers in Berdyczow for the Parish feast.
The sisters have good relations with Greek Catholics and Orthodox believers, who are in the majority in Korostyshiv. They come to each other’s aid and visit each other. The sisters support spiritually, psychologically, and as far as possible financially, those who have lost loved ones in the war and their poor neighbours. Some families with small children have managed to leave for Poland thanks to the support of the sisters. Being close to people in their suffering, separation from loved ones and the hardships of everyday life, and showing them loving God as the source of hope, is perhaps the most important apostolate of the sisters of this community today.
Sr. Malgorzata Wyrodek, SAC
Photos were taken by: Sr. Galina Klimenczuk, Sr. Galina Soroczynska, Fr. Jerzy Borkowski
