Interrupted Lives

Catholic Sisters Under European Communism

Interrupted Lives is a documentary that explores the plight of Eastern-rite and Latin-rite Catholic Sisters under Soviet communist domination from the end of World War II to the Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Filmed on location in Ukraine, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, and the United States, the lives of these sisters offer powerful testimony of their deep faith and courage. Undeterred by evil forces surrounding them, they continued to live their commitment to religious life. These "Sister Survivors" tell about losing their convents, schools and hospitals almost overnight. Many endured imprisonment, exile to Siberia, forced farm and factory labor, and work in mental institutions. Large monasteries, and in one country a castle, became concentration convents where sisters from different congregations were housed. Included in Interrupted Lives are interviews with "secret sisters," those women who entered religious life during the communist period and lived out their vocations underground.

For additional information on the sister survivors, visit Interrupted Lives: Exhibit.