“Yes, I am still a friend of God. But just what kind of friend am I? I wonder if it is one He is pleased to acknowledge?”

Miriam was born in Bayonne, New Jersey, in 1901 to a Ruthenian immigrant family, the youngest of 7 children.

Upon graduating from the local public high school, she wanted to join the Carmelite order but decided to stay home to care for her ailing mother.

Shortly, after her mother’s death, she was encouraged to study literature at the College of Saint Elizabeth where she graduated with the highest honors.

She continued to discern her vocation while teaching at a local Catholic school. She was noted for her humility and genuine piety while often discovered kneeling in the college chapel. Because of her medical issues, she was not able to enter as a Carmelite and her family suggested she use her teaching experience in an active religious order.

She fell ill in 1926 and was diagnosed with physical and nervous exhaustion, myocarditis and acute appendicitis. Her condition quickly worsened. Knowing she would die soon, her brother, who was a priest, and a sister, who was a nurse, sought permission for to receive final vows which she made and died soon after at the age of 26.

Before her death, her spiritual director had encouraged her to write down a number of spiritual conferences which were compiled in a book called, ‘Greater Perfection’. In it she wrote about the universal call to holiness for everyone with a brief meditation on the Stations of the Cross. They have been an inspiration to many around the world and she was declared “venerable” on May 10, 2012. After a reviewed and approved miracle, she was beatified by Pope Francis while in Newark in 2014.

https://stanselminstitute.org/images/Bl.-Miriam-Teresa-Greater-Perfection_2.pdf

For God’s Glory.