Warsaw residents generously supported the Vilnius hospice

On the last Sunday of November, in Warsaw Visitandines church contributions for the Vilnius hospice were collected. In the collection took part the Mother Superior from the Congregation of Sisters of Merciful Jesus in Vilnius, sister Michaela Rak who organized the first hospice in Lithuania. Thanks to the generosity of the citizens of Warsaw more than 15,000 zlotys could be collected.

The blessed Rev. Michał Sopoćko Hospice in Vilnius has been founded on sister Michaela Rak initiative and thanks to dedicated work of people of good will. The hospice is located in the  former monastery, which once belonged to the Sisters from the Visitation Order in Vilnius, at the church dedicated to the Heart of Jesus.

The hospice will welcome its first residents on January 1, 2013.

“Luckily, the building has been redecorated. Now we need funds for the current activity: personnel, medications, food. Some of these expenses will be covered by the money collected in Warsaw” – said Sister Michaela to “Wilnoteka”.

The Vilnius Visitandines church was the first church in the “Rzeczpospolita” (“republic”) dedicated to the Heart of Jesus. It was built in the mid-eighteenth century. Converted into the Orthodox Church in the nineteenth century, the church was eventually returned to Visitandines in 1919. After World War II, the communist authorities closed the church and created a  prison instead, which was closed in 2007.

Source: http://www.wilnoteka.lt/pl/artykul/warszawiacy-hojnie-wsparli-wilenskie-hospicjum

Tłumaczenie Milena Jajkowska w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Milena Jajkowska the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.