The martyr Sister Lavrentia (Harasymiv) was born on 30 September 1911 in the village of Rudnyky, Lviv District. In 1931 she entered the congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Tsebliv. In 1933 she made her first vows. Sr. Lavrentia practiced herbal medicine and taught catechism. In 1938 she went to the Sisters’ house (monastery) in Khyriv. In 1950 she agents of the NKVD (predecessor of the KGB) attacked the house and the sisters were arrested. Sr. Lavrentia was sent to Boryslav. Eventually, she was sentenced to lifelong exile in the Tomsk region. She was sick with tuberculosis and had to live in a room with a paralyzed man. She prayed much and did manual labour, patiently enduring inhuman living conditions and the lack of medical attention.

  She died, as a martyr for the faith, on 28 August 1952 in the village of Kharsk in Siberia’s Tomsk Region.