Although the source material comes only from the 17th century, feminine Dominican movement in Lvov was initiated by the Princess of Halicz, blessed Constance from the Arpad dynasty (1238-1301/2), the wife of Leo of Halicz. She is claimed to have founded around 1293 a feminine tertiary society at the Dominican Monastery in Lvov, by the consent of her husband, who – according to tradition – before his death took up residence in the Spassky Monastery. We know nothing about the society. It might have gone into decline after 1301/2, after Constance’s death in connection with political turbulence in Rus at the threshold of the 14th century. The Princess herself left a great impact in the hagiographical memory and since the 14th century was considered to be blessed in Lvov. The next trace of the Dominican Tertiaries’ presence in Lvov was the erection by Magdalena Ormianka (Magdalena the Armenian) of a small convent for Tertiary sisters in the neighbourhood of the Dominican Monastery and under its pastoral care. In the Middle Ages the sisters constituted a half-monastic community legally adjoined to the Dominicans. At the threshold of the 17th century the Tertiaries undertook an act of reforming into a regular convent with post-Trent rules of enclosure in accordance with the council directives. In 1619, within the framework of reform, they rebuilt their convent and adopted monastic style of life according to the rules of enclosure, preserving their Tertiary specificity. Some sisters decided to become nuns thus initiating Saint Catherine Convent. Those who remained Tertiaries developed successfully throughout the next century. However in the 18th century the convent underwent a vocational crisis. Community reaching with its traditions to Middle Ages did not withstand competition with more modern convents and was slowly dying out. The last two Tertiaries died in 1740. The Dominican Tertiaries in Lvov were the first Catholic monastic community and at the same time the one which left the least information. Throughout ages they were a litmus test of the spiritual and social needs of the Lvov bourgeoisie.
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