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Consecrated virgin “gives all, day and night,” amid Russia’s war in Ukraine

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Olena Punda, a consecrated virgin for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Odesa-Simferopol, Ukraine, is seen  5 September, 2024, at the offices of the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Odesa. Punda told OSV News her vocation enables her to “give all, day and night,” to those impoverished by Russia’s war on Ukraine. (OSV News photo/Gina Christian)

A consecrated virgin in Ukraine said she is grateful for her vocation, which enables her to “give all, day and night,” to those impoverished by Russia’s decade-long war against her nation.

“For me it is a great privilege,” said Olena Punda, speaking to OSV News 5 September in the historic port city of Odesa, located on the Black Sea.

Punda, who hails from Khmelnytskyi in western Ukraine, took her vows as a consecrated virgin of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Odesa-Simferopol in 2021, having formerly been a member of a religious congregation.

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Now working for the diocese, Punda draws on the strength of the Eucharist and prayer to serve the church through a variety of efforts, including coordinating humanitarian aid to those impoverished by the war.

She and others “go out to extend a hand of help to the underprivileged and those who have suffered from the war,” especially those in the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions within the diocese, she said.

In Odesa and other cities, the need is just as great, since “they are filled with internally displaced people who have no means to survive,” said Punda.

Her vocation as a consecrated virgin uniquely enables her to assist the church in that mission, she said. “It is God who can use me all the time that he needs, where he wants and to whom he wants.”

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