At the beginning of World War I, in the face of Russian successes in 1914 in battles with the troops of the Austro–Hungarian Monarchy and the occupation of most of Galicia by Russian troops, evacuated from Lviv. At that time, served in hospitals in Slovenia and Austria.

From 1938, served in the village of Ripne, c. 25 km from the district town of Dolyna in the Stanislaviv Voivodeship, located in a valley jutting into the Outer Eastern Carpathians. The village had an estimated population of c. 1,400 people, of whom Roman Catholic Poles constituted c. 16% and Greek Catholic Ukrainians c. 83%. There were also a few Jews in the village. The St Joseph Sisters CSSJ were brought there by one of the engineers of the Polish „Alfa” Naftowa LLc company, part of the „Karpaty” Polish Oil Society LLc, which owned c. 8 oil wells in Ripne, to care for children in an orphanage. In 1939, 3 CSSJ nuns were serving there.

After the German and Russian invasion of Poland in 09.1939 and the start of World War II, her village found itself — by virtue of the genocidal German–Russian agreement of 23.08.1939, known as the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, confirmed on 28.09.1939 by the „The Treaty on the Borders and Friendship between Germany and Russia”, also known as the Second Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact — under Russian occupation. Arrests of Polish intelligentsia, teachers, doctors, landowners, government officials, foresters, policemen, and the families of Polish servicemen began. In 1940‐1941, many other Poles became victims of four large waves of deportations „to Siberia”. Accounts often mention that „they came at night, without warning, and took away entire families, from infants to the elderly”. „When we went out into the yard, they allowed my mother to look into the chest‐unfortunately, it was empty, because our neighbors had already emptied it. We took practically nothing, because they didn't let us move around the house […] There were large snowdrifts and heavy frosts”. In addition, 150,000–200,000 men were conscripted into the Russian army, and c. 100,000 were forced to work for Russian industry, mainly in the mines of the Donets Basin, in heavy industry plants in the Urals and in Siberia. Then the surveillance of priests and monks began. High taxes were imposed on the clergy.

One of the nuns working in Ripne, Sr Pacifica Helen Urbanek, recalled: „Religious persecution began. The new government began to spread atheistic ideology. We were forced to give up religious life. They promised good, well‐paid jobs in exchange for secular habit and forgoing what they called "outdated views". We did not give up wearing our habits. As I later learned, we were the only St Joseph sisters in the Eastern Borderlands wearing religious habit throughout the war. This certainly resulted in our being thrown out of our home, deprived of the ability to conduct any activities, and resulting in us experiencing immense poverty”.

The situation changed after the German attack on 22.06.1941, on their erstwhile ally, the Russians, and the beginning of the German occupation. The nuns were then able to resume their ministry and return to their home. Ripne became part of the Germ. Kreishauptmannschaft Stryj (Eng. Stryi County) within the Germ. Distrikt Galizien (Eng. District of Galicia), a part of the German‐occupied and run quasi‐state called the Germ. Generalgouvernement (Eng. General Governorate), i.e. GG.

At the beginning of 1942, the Germans began implementing the genocidal plan known as Germ. «Endlösung der Judenfrage» (Eng. Final Solution of the Jewish Question), which in the GG was called the Germ. «Aktion Reinhardt» (Eng. Operation Reinhardt). The place of concentration of Jews in the area was Dolyna, where an open ghetto had existed since 1941, covering the area inhabited exclusively by Jews in 1939. In 1941, an c. 2,700 Jews resided there, but later their number increased by the Jews from neighboring villages and towns In 1941 — Jews from Ripne, as well as from the large neighboring Ukrainian village of Perehinske, were prob. resettled there. The largest extermination action took place on 03.08.1942, when the Germans — in cooperation with Ukrainians collaborating with the Germans serving in the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei (Eng. Ukrainian Auxiliary Police), in some regions also referred to as the Germ. Schutzmannschaft (Eng. Protection Battalions), i.e. Schuma, herded c. 3,500 Jews into the ghetto's market square. Some, deemed fit for work, were sent to slave labor camps, i.a. one in Vyshkiv, c. 40 km southwest of the town, while the remaining 2,500 were marched to the Jewish cemetery and murdered there. For the next 20 months, the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei and various German units hunted down Jews still in hiding.

The hunt for Jews in Dolyna and the surrounding area was still going on when c. 200 km to the north, in Volyn — where she was prob. working before returning to Dolyna — Roman Shukhevych, nom de guerre „Taras Chuprynka”, the chief commander of the Ukrainian, genocidal OUN/UPA organisation, who in 1941 was a member of the Ukrainian Germ. Sondergruppe Nachtigall (Eng. Special Group Nightingale) — a unit of the Germ. Wehrmacht (Eng. Armed Forces) that took part in the German attack on Russians in 1941, accused of participating in the Jewish pogrom in Lviv in 1941 — and later a member of the Germ. Schutzmannschaftsbataillon 201 (Eng. 201st Protection team Battalion) — responsible for the murder of Jews and civilians in the territory of Belarus — issued in 02.1943 an order: „The extermination operation should be carried out according to the following principles: Polish villages are to be burned, and their populations massacred. Attacks on towns will take place in broad daylight, not at night. In mixed villages, the Polish population alone should be liquidated, and farmsteads should be burned only if they are 15 meters away and when there is no risk of the fire spreading to neighboring Ukrainian buildings. The Ukrainian population will receive instructions as to where to gather during the attack […] For every Ukrainian murdered, whether by Poles or Germans, 100 (one hundred) Poles will be executed”.

It was the de facto signal for the commencement of the «Genocidium Atrox» — i.e. the genocide perpetrated by Ukrainians, known as „Volyn genocide”.

Immediately thereafter, in 03.1943, the UPA issued an appeal to members of the Germ. Ukrainische Hilfspolizei to desert and join the UPA in Volyn. Perhaps as many as 10,000 Ukrainians did so.

Volyn was drenched in Polish blood. Tens of thousands of Poles were murdered by the Ukrainians — with German passivity — in an extremely barbaric manner. Hundreds of villages were burned.

At that time, the OUN/UPA was not yet active in the GG — so as not to „annoy” the Germans. Other Ukrainian groups were active, functioning, i.a. under the euphemistic Ukrainian name Ukr. Самооборонні кущові відділи (Eng. Self‐Defense Unit), i.e. SKW, and the aforementioned Germ. Ukrainian Hilfspolizei, de facto collaborating with the OUN, the political arm of the genocidal UPA, it might be claimed the even being controlled by the OUN. And they were responsible for the growing wave of attacks on the defenseless Polish population — with the passivity of the German occupier. E.g. there are reports that in Dolyna in 1943 — in the spring, or maybe in the autumn, the sources are not clear — the Germ. Ukrainian Hilfspolizei and the Germans shot c. 40 Poles and c. 8 Ukrainians for helping Jews.

When at the turn of 1943/1944 it became clear that Germany was losing the war in the East — on 24.12.1943, the great Russian offensive known as the Dnieper–Carpathian Operation began — the OUN/UPA decided to extend the genocide «Genocidium Atrox» to the GG, including the Germ. Distrikt Galizien. Most of the aforementioned Ukrainian „self‐defense” SKW groups automatically transformed into OUN/UPA units. The Ukrainian génocidaires formed then i.a. the OUN/UPA operational group „UPA‐West”, under the command of Vasyl Sydor, nom de guerre „Shelest”, who ordered „to constantly attack Poles until they are completely exterminated from these lands”.

The UPA Military District WO‐4 „Hoverla”, commanded by Mykola Tverdokhlib, nom de guerre „Hrym” (Eng. „Thunder”), was responsible for implementing «Genocidium Atrox» in the Dolyna area. Both Sydor and Tverdokhlib honed their genocidal craft in 1941 in the Ukrainian Germ. Sondergruppe Nachtigall, and the former also in the Germ. Schutzmannschaftsbataillon 201 — just like their chief commander, the aforementioned Roman Shukhevych.

The intensification of attacks on Dolyna and the surrounding area occurred during the spring break in the Russian offensive in the east, i.e. after the Dnieper–Carpathian Operation was halted on 17.04.1944.

The aforementioned Sister Pacifica Helena Urbanek recalled: „In the spring of 1944, Banderite attacks reached incredible proportions […] All Poles who had not yet left Ripne were threatened with death”. The attacks took place, among others, in Rozhnyativ, c. 12 km away, and in the neighboring village of Perehinske, where several hundred Poles lived. Sources state that in Perehinske, „Banderites robbed and burned Polish farms and a Roman Catholic [chapel], and murdered 10 Poles, including a mother and her 3‐year‐old daughter. They kidnapped 25‐year‐old Eugenie Czanerla and her half‐sister, 19‐yearold Josepha Raczyńska, to a bunker. They held them there for several days, raped them, and then murdered them”.

Priests and nuns were threatened with death: „Ukrainian nationalists often directed their criminal plans against specific nuns. Such an incident occurred in Ripne, where a nurse (a St Joseph's nun) was summoned to see a Ukrainian who was known for his hostility towards Poles. After performing the procedure, the man — as he later told the nun — had a knife ready with which to attack the nurse. He did not carry out his plan because the nun did not want payment for the procedure”.

Notwithstanding the dangers, the nuns continued their ministry: „Despite the real danger, we had no intention of leaving Ripne. We lived in hope that the situation would change and that we would continue to work and help the local population. Despite everything, we met many friendly Ukrainian families. They usually came to us at night to share grain, potatoes, or bread with us. Not everyone was bad”.

When the nuns received information about Ukrainian plans to kidnap and murder a local priest, Fr John Marciniak, they began preparations to leave Ripne. Sr Pacifica recalled: „Sr Ceslava, with her characteristic calm, reassured us, encouraging us to confidently pray the rosary for God's protection over the priest […] She said to me: "Sister, don't cry. Father Marciniak […], nothing will happen to him. Only one of us will be lost. Those who remain are not to look for her in the forest, but to leave at the first opportunity". After some time, we received news from Rozhnyativ that the priest was alive and nothing bad had happened to him”.

On 25.05.1944, left for Dolyna to assess the situation. „Finally, Thursday's day of departure arrived […] She said: "I'll be with the Lord Jesus tomorrow… I"ll be with Him first" […] She left Ripne at exactly 12:30 p.m. We calculated that she should be there by 3:30 p.m. at the latest”.

Didn't make it. Based on the account of a Ukrainian witness, Sr Pacifica recalled: „On the road, he met Sr Ceslava riding in a wagon with a carter, who offered him to join them, which the boy gladly accepted. When they had traveled about 3 km and were close to the forest, a group of Ukrainians stopped everyone […] He was ordered to continue on his way, but he was not allowed to look back.

Despite this order, the boy managed to see Sister Ceslava getting down from the wagon and then limping along the road surrounded by men leading towards the forest.

[…] What happened next to Sister Ceslava, the driver, and the entire contents of the wagon, the boy did not know, because the forest hid everyone from his view.

[…] Searching for Sister Ceslava was impossible. As for Sister Ceslava, we were convinced she had been murdered. One of the Ukrainian women, justifying herself, told me that she told her people: "You could have taken the things and left out the nun"”.

The Russians entered Ripne on 06.07.1944.

On 12.10.2007, the génocidaire Roman Shukhevych was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine. On 10.12.2017, on behalf of the „Coordination Council for the Commemoration of Decorated Knights of the OUN and UPA”, génocidaire Vasyl Sydor was posthumously awarded in Lviv the Silver Cross of Military Merit of the UPA, 1st Class (No. 009). On 10.12.2017, on behalf of the „Coordination Council for the Commemoration of Decorated Knights of the OUN and UPA”, genocidal perpetrator Mykola Tverdokhlib was posthumously awarded in Ivano–Frankivsk (i.e. Stanislaviv) the Bronze Cross of Military Merit of the UPA (No. 042). In several locations, monuments and commemorative plaques have been erected to these Lat. „hostis humani generis”, schools bear their name.

Lat. „O Tempora! O mores!”