Blessed Teresa Demjanovich

Miriam Teresa Demjanovich, SC (March 26, 1901 – May 8, 1927) was an American Ruthenian Greek Catholic Sister of Charity. For a life of servitude, much spiritual writing and several blessings to those who invoked her after death, she was beatified by the Catholic Church in 2014. The ceremony, held in Newark, New Jersey, was the first such to take place in the United States. She was born Teresa Demjanovich in Bayonne, New Jersey, on March 26, 1901, the youngest of the seven children of Alexander Demjanovich and Johanna Suchy, Ruthenian immigrants to the United States from what is now eastern Slovakia. She received Baptism, Chrismation, and First Holy Communion in the Ruthenian Rite of her parents. Demjanovich grew up beside the oil refineries that mark the landscape of this portion of New Jersey. She completed her grammar school education by the age of eleven, and received her high school diploma in January 1917, from Bayonne High School (at that time located in the present-day Robinson School). At this time, she wished to become a Carmelite, but stayed in the family home to care for her sick mother. After her mother died in the influenza epidemic of November 1918, she was encouraged by her family to attend the College of Saint Elizabeth at Convent Station, New Jersey. She began her college career in September 1919, majoring in literature, and graduated with highest honors in June 1923. It is claimed that Demjanovich desired a religious life, but various circumstances made her uncertain which community she should enter. Meanwhile, she accepted a teaching position at the Academy of Saint Aloysius in Jersey City. During her time at the college, many individuals remarked on her humility and genuine piety. She could be found kneeling in the college chapel at all hours and was very devoted to praying the rosary.