The Dominican Sisters of the Immaculate Conception were founded by Mother Maria Rose Columba Bialecka in 1861. She was born on August 23, 1838, in eastern Poland. Utilizing her many natural and supernatural gifts, Mother Bialecka, at the age of 19, followed the dictates of her heart and entered the novitiate of the Dominican Sisters in Nancy, France to receive her religious formation. Not long after making her first religious vows, she returned to Poland to lay the foundation for the Congregation of Dominican Sisters in Poland.