Dominican Sisters engage in intercultural dialogue in Buryatia

Buryatia is the heart of Siberian Asia and a land of extreme contrasts: forty-degree frosts coexist with the warmth and hospitality of local … The Sisters of St. Dominic began their ministry in Buryatia in 2000. "At the beginning of our mission," recalls Sr. Bernadetta Gratkowska, OP, "we were such an unusual sight for the locals that people would run out of shops just to look at the nuns walking down the street." The first steps of the new mission were not easy. The sisters, who had arrived from Poland, had to get used to the harsh Siberian climate and to the fact that it can be cold here not only on the street.

"I remember my first winter in Siberia very well," says Sr. Bernadetta. "All through January, the frost was down to -45°C. The city heating system broke down. In the apartment, it was between -12°C and +4°C; we had to walk around in our jackets." The Catholic community in Ulan-Ude – the capital of Buryatia – shared the fate of many other Catholics in the former USSR. The parish church, built in 1907, was destroyed during Soviet