Miriam Teresa Demjanovich was the seventh and youngest child of Ruthenian immigrants to the USA from what is now Eastern Slovakia. She grew up in Bayonne, New Jersey and, after graduating from high school, wanted to become a Carmelite sister. Instead, she stayed in the family home to care for her ailing mother who later died of the influenza epidemic of November 1918. Teresa then went on to graduate summa cum laude from the College of Saint Elizabeth at Convent Station, New Jersey with a degree in literature. 

After years of discernment and a novena specifically prayed to help her discover which congregation she was called to join, she entered the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth and received her religious habit as a novice on May 17, 1925.

During her short time as a postulant and novice, before her death, Teresa taught at the Academy of St. Elizabeth in Convent Station where she was originally educated. Prompted by her spiritual director, she wrote a series of conferences on the spiritual life for use in the education of the other novices. These 26 conferences would later be published under the title The Greater Perfection; A means of achieving union with God through prayer and the book is still available to this day from the Sisters of Charity’s online bookstore.  

Shortly into her second year in the congregation, Teresa became very ill. After a tonsillectomy, months of illness, and, eventually, an operation for appendicitis, she passed away on May 8, 1927. Before her passing, though, she made her profession of permeant religious vows from her hospital bed. Her funeral was held on May 11, and she was buried on the grounds of her congregation’s motherhouse at the Holy Family Cemetery in Convent Station, New Jersey.

Throughout her short life, Teresa was known for her contemplative and mystic relationship with God as well as her incredible compassion and selflessness toward others. While in college, her friends nicknamed her Treat and would seek her out for guidance, help, and support. She was very active in the community life of whatever school, church, or congregation she was involved in. She spent time helping with many different ministries, singing in choirs, and spending time with friends by going out on the town shopping and attending concerts. Despite all of these activities and a packed social schedule, she was known to always find time to go to the chapel to pray and could be frequently found there in-between classes and her social engagements. 

Her life mission resonates clearly throughout her writings — to educate people about the universal call to holiness. In the first of the conferences in The Greater Perfection she writes, “The saints did but one thing — the will of God: But they did it with all their might.” Teresa, too, strived to do the will of God with all her might and, after the official recognition of a miracle through her intercession, Pope Francis declared her Blessed on Oct 4, 2014, at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, New Jersey. This was the first ever beatification ceremony held in the United States.