Today, July 18, is the memorial of Blessed Tarsykia Matskiv.
Born Ohla Matskiv in 1919 in Ukraine, she came from a religious working-class family. Even in her youth, she was already a model of virtue.
Although her mother was against the idea, she relented in allowing Ohla to join the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate in 1938. Ohla took the religious name Tarsykia. She made a private vow to her spiritual director Fr. Volodymyr Kovalyk, OSBM: that she would offer her life for the conversion of Russia and for the Catholic faith.
At the time of the Second World War in 1944, the Soviets began attacking Krystynopil (now Chervonohrad), Ukraine. On July 18, the Sisters thought a priest, who was scheduled to celebrate Mass in their convent, was ringing the bell. Tarsykia went out to open the gate and was shot without warning, as it turned out, by an attacking Soviet soldier who admitted, “I killed her because she was a nun.”
She was beatified on June 27, 2001 by Pope St. John II in Ukraine. Her memorial was originally set on June 27. However, her feast date later moved to July 18, the day of her death.