When Joaquina de Vedruna Vidal de Mas was born on April 16, 1783, in Barcelona in the Kingdom of Spain, her parents probably never imagined the adventure that lay ahead of her as a future wife, mother, religious, foundress, and servant to the sick and poor children. Yet, St. Joachina listened to the voice of Christ and followed, not only into a deep relationship with Him, but also as a religious committed to help the least.
Joaquina was born into a noble family, one of eight children. In 1795, when she was twelve years old, she expressed to her parents a desire to become a cloistered Discalced Carmelite nun. But they felt she was too young and immature to enter such a strict life. While that door was temporarily closed to her, Joaquina began to develop a strong prayer life with a special devotion to the Infant Christ.
On March 24, 1799, at the age of sixteen, she married Teodoro de Mas, who also came from a noble background. Like his wife, he had a desire to become a religious and enter the Franciscan Order. He also led a life of prayer and showed concern for those in need. After their marriage, both Joaquina and Teodoro became Third Order Franciscans. They raised nine children. Four daughters would enter religious life, two sons married and three children died at a young age.
Life was good for the family until Napoleon invaded Spain. Joaquina and her children fled their home while her husband remained to fight as a volunteer against the invasion. He returned home but suffered ill health from the war. He died on March 6, 1816. Joaquina moved her children to a family estate in Vic.
Joaquina began to wear the habit of the Third Order Franciscans and began to offer care for the sick and women. By 1826, with her children grown, she realized a dream she had as a child of entering religious life. Her spiritual director, a Capuchin friar named Esteban de Olot, suggested that she begin an apostolic community that would continue the work she had started in Vic.
She met with the Bishop of Vic, Pablo Jesus Corcuero, to share the goal of forming a new religious community. He offered his support but encouraged her to look to the Carmelite Order for inspiration and a basis of spirituality for the new community. He wrote the rule for the new foundation, the Carmelite Sisters of Charity. On February 26, 1826, she along with eight other women professed their vows to the Bishop. In the future, she would refine the rule with the help of St. Anthony Claret.
War forced the community to move to Roussillon, France, where they remained from 1836 to 1842. Despite this setback, the community grew rapidly and won a papal decree of praise from Pope Pius IX on August 5, 1857. Houses were built to shelter the homeless along with schools in poor areas for the education of children. Her community was affiliated to the Carmelite Order on September 14, 1860. The Carmelite Sisters of Charity was established throughout Spain, Hispanic America, and later in Japan and Eritrea among other areas. Besides the tremendous service she offered, St. Joaquina was also committed to a life of prayer, especially the contemplation of the Holy Trinity.
The last years of St. Joaquina’s life was filled with illness. She suffered her first attack of apoplexy in September 1849. A growing paralysis began to affect her in 1850. She died during a cholera epidemic in Barcelona on August 28, 1854. She was beatified by Pope Pius XII on May 19, 1940 and canonized by St. Pope John XXIII on April 12, 1959. She is the patron saint of abuse victims, exiles, mothers and protector of children against death. Her body is incorrupt.
The incorrupt body of St. Joaquina de Vedruna de Mas.
“If we were only on fire with love of God! If we were, we would preach love, proclaim love, and yet more love, until we set the whole world on fire. We must have great desire: then God will give us whatever is best for us. We must be careful to free our hearts from everything that might get in the way of the pure love of our beloved Jesus. He is love itself, and wants to give himself to us through love. Jesus is calling us all the time – how long are we going to remain deaf to his voice?”(From a letter of St. Joaquina De Vedruna de Mas)
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POPE FRANCIS
GENERAL AUDIENCE
Paul VI Audience Hall
Wednesday, 7 January 2015
Wednesday, 7 January 2015
Pope: Motherhood is martyrdom -Published on Jan 7, 2015
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As I am a mother myself, I thought it will be a wonderful idea to share with the world this beautiful email I received --- intertwining Pope Francis's general audience of 7th January 2015 with the life of --- Saint Joaquima de Vedruna
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Abbaye Saint-Joseph de
Clairval21150 Flavigny sur OzerainFrance
Letter of 17 January 2016,
Feast of Saint Anthony, Abbot
Feast of Saint Anthony, Abbot
Dear Friends,
“Mothers often pass on the deepest sense of
religious practice,” Pope Francis said on January 7, 2015. “[I]n a human being’s
life, the value of faith is inscribed in the first prayers, the first acts of
devotion that a child learns. It is a message that believing mothers are able to
pass on without much explanation: these come later, but the seed of faith is
those early precious moments.” Saint Joaquima de Vedruna was one of those
mothers who pass on the faith. Her life knew the joys of motherhood, the sorrow
of widowhood, and then the total consecration of religious life.
Joaquima de Vedruna was born in Barcelona, Spain, on April 16, 1783, and was baptized that same day. Her parents, Llorenc de Vedruna, a notary in the city’s royal chancery, and Teresa Vidal would have eight children, including two sons. One of them, Ramon, would become a member of the Academy of Belles Lettres. At the time, Catalonia, for good or ill, was under the central authority of the Bourbons, and the “French Enlightenment” (the skeptical and rationalist spirit introduced by philosophers such as Voltaire), was beginning to influence thought. The Vedruna family, for its part, would remain profoundly Catholic.
A naive request
The child often appeared very recollected,
and when her mother asked her the secret of this recollection, she replied:
“Anyone can use my method. When I pull up a weed in the garden, I ask the Good
Lord to pull up a fault from my heart. When I use needles to make lace, I see
the thorns that, because of my sins, pierced the head of Jesus…” At the age of
twelve, she felt a call from God to religious life. The Vedrunas regularly
attended Mass at the Carmelite convent. The girl naively asked the Prioress to
be admitted to Carmel. The Prioress answered gently that her age did not yet
allow such a step.
A young lawyer named Theodore de Mas, originally from Vic, a town 70 kilometers away, worked alongside Mr. Vedruna at the chancery in Barcelona. At the time such a distance made it impossible to return home every day. So Llorenc de Vedruna opened his home to the young man. It wasn’t long before Theodore felt an attraction to the charming Joaquima, barely sixteen years old. The father rejoiced at the thought of having such a son-in-law, and he soon spoke of it to his daughter. Although still drawn to religious life, Joaquima saw in her father’s desire God’s will for her. The wedding was set for Easter Sunday, March 24, 1799. Theodore brought his wife to the family home, but the young Barcelonian did not have the good fortune of pleasing her parents-in-law, which led to great misunderstandings and tension that would diminish only with the birth of their first daughter, Anna. Other births then followed: a total of nine children, two boys and seven girls, of whom three (a boy and two girls) would die in childhood. Four daughters would embrace religious life.
“The joy of children causes the parents’ hearts to beat and reopens the future,” declared Pope Francis, on February 11, 2015. “Children are the joy of the family and of society. They are not a question of reproductive biology, nor one of the many ways to fulfill oneself, much less a possession of their parents … Children are a gift, they are a gift … Each one is unique and irreplaceable; and at the same time unmistakably linked to his/her roots … a society with a paucity of generations, which does not love being surrounded by children, which considers them above all a worry, a weight, a risk, is a depressed society … If a family with many children is looked upon as a weight, something is wrong! The having of children must be responsible, as the Encyclical Humanae Vitae of Blessed Pope Paul VI also teaches, but having many children cannot automatically be an irresponsible choice. Not to have children is a selfish choice. Life is rejuvenated and acquires energy by multiplying: it is enriched, not impoverished! Children learn to assume responsibility for their family. They mature in sharing its hardship. They grow in the appreciation of its gifts. The happy experience of brotherhood inspires respect and care for parents, to whom our recognition is due.”
The nineteenth century in Spain was particularly troubled. The country was continually disrupted by wars, attempted revolutions, and fierce struggles for power. Taking advantage of conflicts within the ruling family, Napoleon seized the peninsula. In 1808, Barcelona was occupied by the French army, and the Vedruna family fled to the countryside. Theodore enlisted as an officer in the Spanish army, against Napoleon. When peace returned, the family moved to Barcelona where Theodore opened a management office. His health suffered as a result of the war, but he worked bravely to provide for his family. On January 26, 1816, he wrote to his wife, who was at the family farm: “Dear Joaquima, thank you for your kind letter… I am happy that you and the little one are well… I wish that you return as soon as possible, for the boys are driving me crazy. One wants to go to the theater, the other to the little shepherds, and it is I who must take them … The clients do not pay their bills and I am ashamed to ask for what I am owed… May we live many more years to enjoy one another. Your husband, Theodore, who loves you awake, asleep, dreaming, and in repose.”
“Mothers,” said Pope Francis, on January 7, 2015, “are the strongest antidote to the spread of self-centered individualism. ‘Individual’ means ‘what cannot be divided’. Mothers, instead, ‘divide’ themselves, from the moment they bear a child to give him to the world and help him grow… How a mother suffers! It is they who testify to the beauty of life. Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero said that mothers experience a ‘martyrdom of motherhood’ … Yes, being a mother doesn’t only mean bringing a child to the world, but it is also a life choice. The life choice of a mother is the choice to give life. And this is great, this is beautiful. A society without mothers would be a dehumanized society, for mothers are always, even in the worst moments, witnesses of tenderness, dedication and moral strength… Without mothers, not only would there be no new faithful, but the faith would lose a good part of its simple and profound warmth. And the Church is mother, with all of this, she is our mother! We are not orphans, we have a mother! … We are not orphans, we are children of the Church, we are children of Our Lady, and we are children of our mothers.”
The Lord wants something else
As a young thirty-three-year-old widow,
Joaquima made an impression on the fashionable society of Vic, but her sole
attraction was to follow the Lord’s call, which had become a fire that set her
heart ablaze, all the more so as several of her children were already on their
own. She increased her work with the poor, so numerous at the time. Sometimes,
accompanied by her daughters, she went to the hospital to care for the sick or
to help them to have a good death. One day in 1819, the horse she was riding
refused to obey her and stopped before the Capuchin church. A religious
approached and told her, “I have been waiting for you.” It was Brother Stephen,
who had recently been assigned to preach in Vic and the surrounding area. This
Capuchin, who led a very austere life, became her spiritual director. When he
traveled through the villages of rural Catalonia, this missionary religious
noted the poverty, state of neglect, and suffering of the locals, and hence the
urgent need for a permanent organization to help them. When these two apostles
met, the plan to found a new type of apostolic religious congregation to respond
to these needs was born. Setting aside her hopes for a cloistered life, Joaquima
embarked on founding a new women’s order of nurses and schoolteachers dedicated
to serving the poor. She explained, “My intent was to enter the convent, but it
seemed that the Lord wanted something entirely different of me—the formation of
Sisters who embrace all the needs of the people, in caring for the sick or
teaching girls.”
In instituting the jubilee year of Mercy, Pope Francis exhorted Christians to perform works of mercy: “It is my burning desire that, during this Jubilee, the Christian people may reflect on the corporal and spiritual works of mercy… Jesus introduces us to these works of mercy in His preaching so that we can know whether or not we are living as His disciples. Let us rediscover these corporal works of mercy: to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, heal the sick, visit the imprisoned, and bury the dead. And let us not forget the spiritual works of mercy: to counsel the doubtful, instruct the ignorant, admonish sinners, comfort the afflicted, forgive offenses, bear patiently those who do us ill, and pray for the living and the dead… May the words of the Apostle accompany us: he who does acts of mercy, let him do them with cheerfulness (cf. Rom. 12:8)” (Bull of Indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, April 11, 2015).
In preparing for her mission as foundress, Joaquima practiced long hours of mental prayer, however without depriving her children of her tenderness as a mother, and devoted herself to both works of charity and harsh penances. She showed a pronounced appetite for liturgical prayers, whose richness and savor she penetrated. Her spirituality likewise rested on the profound experience of God the Father’s love, a love that Jesus’ humanity made visible and that the Spirit inspires to enable one to follow in the footsteps of Christ. Joaquima’s soul was transformed, and the Lord rewarded her with extraordinary spiritual gifts: ecstasies, raptures, levitations… These phenomena punctuated the rest of her life, and, in spite of the care she took to hide them, were witnessed by many.
Misunderstandings and criticisms
In April 1825, a new bishop, Bishop
Corcuera, arrived in Vic to replace his predecessor, who had been assassinated.
The prelate took an interest in Joaquima’s project, as unusual and novel as it
was. On January 6, 1826, during a Mass, at the age of forty-two, Joaquima took
the three vows of religion at the hands of the bishop. The youngest of her
daughters was only eleven years old, a fact that would bring misunderstandings
and criticisms against her. In reality, even as a religious, the foundress
remained very close to her children. Soon a group of young women moved by the
same ideal joined her. These young women of humble origins perceived God’s call
to religious life, but they could not provide a dowry. As a result, according to
the provisions of canon law at the time, they had no possibility of entering
religious life. In her official petition to the bishop, to establish the
community, the foundress wrote: “Joaquima de Mas y de Vedruna aspires to work
for the glory of God and the good of her neighbor, in union with a few other
poor souls, on fire with the love of God. These souls, desirous of becoming
nuns, but not having been admitted to convents, could not otherwise quench their
love for Jesus. This is why I beg Your Excellency…”
Joaquima did not build any convent; the manor she had inherited from her husband would be the cradle of the new congregation. On February 26, 1826, during a Mass at the Capuchin house in the town, the institute was officially founded and nine young women committed themselves to it. At the bishop’s request, it was placed under the patronage of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. In 1850, it would be definitively approved under the name of “Congregation of Carmelite Sisters of Charity”. At the manor, which had become their novitiate, these apostolic Carmelites opened a school for girls; they also offered to watch over the sick at night. Joaquima was a true mother to her companions who, for the most part, were younger than her own children. Brother Stephen, who had written them a Rule very much marked by Franciscan spirituality, died in 1828, and Joaquima had to take over the growing congregation without the support of this precious spiritual guide. Very appreciative of the friendship of priests she knew, she suffered when they seemed to forget her. In a letter to the prioress of a convent, she wrote, “Please tell Father Francesc that I do not know if he is living or dead. As for me, I cannot forget him, but as for him, I think that he has forgotten me, for I have not received a single word from him. At least remember me to him.”
Thanks to new laws that protected charitable activities, Joaquima and her daughters were able to offer their services in municipal hospitals. As both a daughter and wife of men of the law, she knew how to take advantage of the laws in force to assist the poor, her charges. The impact of her congregation on local authorities and on communities grew to the point that vocations poured in, and the services of the Carmelites of Charity were requested from towns far and wide. However, when the congregation had been in existence only seven years, the first Carlist War (1833-1839) brought about the closing of almost all the houses, as well as Joaquima’s imprisonment. Indeed, she was called an enemy of the victorious State, because one of her sons had enlisted in the Carlist militias (legitimist royalists, supporters of Don Carlos, opposed to the liberal monarchy in Madrid). After a harsh persecution and a brief prison stay, she finally was forced into self-imposed exile in France, where the city of Perpignan welcomed her for three years (1840-1843). From there, she could still maintain an exchange of letters with her communities that had been spared by the government. Life in the capital of Roussillon was not easy. Living in a too small apartment and surviving by doing a few odd jobs, the fifteen Sisters and the Superior saw the death of three of them. The foundress wrote to her deputy for the Spanish communities: “In spite of all that I am currently living, that I have already lived through, and all that I am seeing, God always sustains me by giving me courage so that I do not completely succumb. This is why, my daughter, I can affirm that on the way of the cross, it is Jesus Who carries it. Amen! Forward!” The varied, unforeseen and unsettling circumstances of her life had taught Joaquima that it is abandoning oneself totally into God’s hands that makes it possible to endure all things. Her apostolic dynamism remained steeped in contemplative life. In her numerous occupations, she remained closely united with God. Her motto could have been: “Action through contemplation.”
An inestimable comfort
When she returned to Vic in 1843, Joaquima
experienced the bishop’s hostility towards her because of her son’s Carlist
sympathies, for which she was in any case not responsible. She accepted this
injustice in silence. Fortunately, meeting Saint Anthony Mary Claret was an
inestimable comfort. This apostle took charge of defending the Sisters, like a
father or brother. He supported the foundress with all his power, particularly
in the formation of novices, and proposed to her a revision of the original
rule, which would prove extremely beneficial. A new novitiate was opened (it had
been closed in 1840). After Father Claret’s death, the Claretian Missionaries,
his spiritual sons, would continue to provide fraternal assistance to the nuns.
In spite of the numerous problems posed by the civil war, the congregation grew,
first in Catalonia, then throughout Spain, and as far as South America. Between
1843 and 1853, Mother Joaquima established nineteen communities to run public
schools and municipal hospitals.
Exhausted by such dedication, the foundress’ strength weakened. In 1849, she had already suffered a stroke. Seated in a wheelchair, she witnessed the continuing flourishing of her congregation in the hands of her successor. The morning of August 28, 1854, in Barcelona where she had moved at the end of 1852, she suffered a stroke. The cholera epidemic carried her off on this same day, around three o’clock in the afternoon, at the age of seventy-one. This disease would claim four hundred victims in the House of Charity that she herself had founded. Joaquima de Vedruna, a widow, left behind six living children, eleven grandchildren and an institute that numbered 150 sisters spread out among thirty communities. Beatified by Pius XII on May 19, 1940, she was canonized on April 12, 1959 by Saint John XXIII. Under the mantle of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the tertiary Carmelites of Charity-Vedruna continue today their unceasing devotion to serving others. They currently number more than 2,500 religious, carrying out their mission in twenty-three countries on four continents.
Saint Joaquima reminds us that we can sanctify ourselves whatever our state in life and be faithful to the Lord “Who calls”. She shows that the life of sacrifice, illumined by humility and prayer, is a short path to Heaven. Let us put her teaching to good use in our own lives.
Joaquima de Vedruna was born in Barcelona, Spain, on April 16, 1783, and was baptized that same day. Her parents, Llorenc de Vedruna, a notary in the city’s royal chancery, and Teresa Vidal would have eight children, including two sons. One of them, Ramon, would become a member of the Academy of Belles Lettres. At the time, Catalonia, for good or ill, was under the central authority of the Bourbons, and the “French Enlightenment” (the skeptical and rationalist spirit introduced by philosophers such as Voltaire), was beginning to influence thought. The Vedruna family, for its part, would remain profoundly Catholic.
A naive request
A young lawyer named Theodore de Mas, originally from Vic, a town 70 kilometers away, worked alongside Mr. Vedruna at the chancery in Barcelona. At the time such a distance made it impossible to return home every day. So Llorenc de Vedruna opened his home to the young man. It wasn’t long before Theodore felt an attraction to the charming Joaquima, barely sixteen years old. The father rejoiced at the thought of having such a son-in-law, and he soon spoke of it to his daughter. Although still drawn to religious life, Joaquima saw in her father’s desire God’s will for her. The wedding was set for Easter Sunday, March 24, 1799. Theodore brought his wife to the family home, but the young Barcelonian did not have the good fortune of pleasing her parents-in-law, which led to great misunderstandings and tension that would diminish only with the birth of their first daughter, Anna. Other births then followed: a total of nine children, two boys and seven girls, of whom three (a boy and two girls) would die in childhood. Four daughters would embrace religious life.
“The joy of children causes the parents’ hearts to beat and reopens the future,” declared Pope Francis, on February 11, 2015. “Children are the joy of the family and of society. They are not a question of reproductive biology, nor one of the many ways to fulfill oneself, much less a possession of their parents … Children are a gift, they are a gift … Each one is unique and irreplaceable; and at the same time unmistakably linked to his/her roots … a society with a paucity of generations, which does not love being surrounded by children, which considers them above all a worry, a weight, a risk, is a depressed society … If a family with many children is looked upon as a weight, something is wrong! The having of children must be responsible, as the Encyclical Humanae Vitae of Blessed Pope Paul VI also teaches, but having many children cannot automatically be an irresponsible choice. Not to have children is a selfish choice. Life is rejuvenated and acquires energy by multiplying: it is enriched, not impoverished! Children learn to assume responsibility for their family. They mature in sharing its hardship. They grow in the appreciation of its gifts. The happy experience of brotherhood inspires respect and care for parents, to whom our recognition is due.”
The nineteenth century in Spain was particularly troubled. The country was continually disrupted by wars, attempted revolutions, and fierce struggles for power. Taking advantage of conflicts within the ruling family, Napoleon seized the peninsula. In 1808, Barcelona was occupied by the French army, and the Vedruna family fled to the countryside. Theodore enlisted as an officer in the Spanish army, against Napoleon. When peace returned, the family moved to Barcelona where Theodore opened a management office. His health suffered as a result of the war, but he worked bravely to provide for his family. On January 26, 1816, he wrote to his wife, who was at the family farm: “Dear Joaquima, thank you for your kind letter… I am happy that you and the little one are well… I wish that you return as soon as possible, for the boys are driving me crazy. One wants to go to the theater, the other to the little shepherds, and it is I who must take them … The clients do not pay their bills and I am ashamed to ask for what I am owed… May we live many more years to enjoy one another. Your husband, Theodore, who loves you awake, asleep, dreaming, and in repose.”
“
I choose you!”
Two months later, tuberculosis struck
Theodore and within a week, on March 6, 1816, put him in his grave. Joaquima was
overcome with grief, but in contemplating Jesus crucified, she drew an
unshakable confidence in God the Father. The very night of her husband’s death,
she received these words from Jesus: “Now I choose you for My wife.” She moved
to the family farm of Mas Escorial in Vic, a property she inherited from her
husband, and immediately began to devote herself to the tasks of managing a
farm—working with the farmers, caring for the livestock, farming the land,
paying the taxes, defending against lawsuits… In the midst of all this activity,
she spent long periods in prayer, which strengthened her in knowing what to do
and in her gentle attentiveness to her children, and which soothed her heart,
wounded by the death of her husband. She extended her loving care to her
servants, looking after their corporal and spiritual needs, and joining them in
sweeping the house and washing the dishes. So passed ten years of her widowhood
(1816-1826). I choose you!”
“Mothers,” said Pope Francis, on January 7, 2015, “are the strongest antidote to the spread of self-centered individualism. ‘Individual’ means ‘what cannot be divided’. Mothers, instead, ‘divide’ themselves, from the moment they bear a child to give him to the world and help him grow… How a mother suffers! It is they who testify to the beauty of life. Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero said that mothers experience a ‘martyrdom of motherhood’ … Yes, being a mother doesn’t only mean bringing a child to the world, but it is also a life choice. The life choice of a mother is the choice to give life. And this is great, this is beautiful. A society without mothers would be a dehumanized society, for mothers are always, even in the worst moments, witnesses of tenderness, dedication and moral strength… Without mothers, not only would there be no new faithful, but the faith would lose a good part of its simple and profound warmth. And the Church is mother, with all of this, she is our mother! We are not orphans, we have a mother! … We are not orphans, we are children of the Church, we are children of Our Lady, and we are children of our mothers.”
The Lord wants something else
In instituting the jubilee year of Mercy, Pope Francis exhorted Christians to perform works of mercy: “It is my burning desire that, during this Jubilee, the Christian people may reflect on the corporal and spiritual works of mercy… Jesus introduces us to these works of mercy in His preaching so that we can know whether or not we are living as His disciples. Let us rediscover these corporal works of mercy: to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, heal the sick, visit the imprisoned, and bury the dead. And let us not forget the spiritual works of mercy: to counsel the doubtful, instruct the ignorant, admonish sinners, comfort the afflicted, forgive offenses, bear patiently those who do us ill, and pray for the living and the dead… May the words of the Apostle accompany us: he who does acts of mercy, let him do them with cheerfulness (cf. Rom. 12:8)” (Bull of Indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, April 11, 2015).
In preparing for her mission as foundress, Joaquima practiced long hours of mental prayer, however without depriving her children of her tenderness as a mother, and devoted herself to both works of charity and harsh penances. She showed a pronounced appetite for liturgical prayers, whose richness and savor she penetrated. Her spirituality likewise rested on the profound experience of God the Father’s love, a love that Jesus’ humanity made visible and that the Spirit inspires to enable one to follow in the footsteps of Christ. Joaquima’s soul was transformed, and the Lord rewarded her with extraordinary spiritual gifts: ecstasies, raptures, levitations… These phenomena punctuated the rest of her life, and, in spite of the care she took to hide them, were witnessed by many.
Misunderstandings and criticisms
Joaquima did not build any convent; the manor she had inherited from her husband would be the cradle of the new congregation. On February 26, 1826, during a Mass at the Capuchin house in the town, the institute was officially founded and nine young women committed themselves to it. At the bishop’s request, it was placed under the patronage of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. In 1850, it would be definitively approved under the name of “Congregation of Carmelite Sisters of Charity”. At the manor, which had become their novitiate, these apostolic Carmelites opened a school for girls; they also offered to watch over the sick at night. Joaquima was a true mother to her companions who, for the most part, were younger than her own children. Brother Stephen, who had written them a Rule very much marked by Franciscan spirituality, died in 1828, and Joaquima had to take over the growing congregation without the support of this precious spiritual guide. Very appreciative of the friendship of priests she knew, she suffered when they seemed to forget her. In a letter to the prioress of a convent, she wrote, “Please tell Father Francesc that I do not know if he is living or dead. As for me, I cannot forget him, but as for him, I think that he has forgotten me, for I have not received a single word from him. At least remember me to him.”
“
Reassure her!”
At this time, the country’s population was
largely illiterate, and it was primarily males who received education. Joaquima
approached town halls to obtain legal protection and permission to open
facilities for the education of girls. Her followers were the first women
religious in Spain dedicated to teaching. The Mother did not want corporal
punishment in her schools, and she transformed the saying “Learning enters with
blood” into “Learning does not enter with blood but with affection”. She
recommended to her religious: “Do not allow a student to leave the school
annoyed and irritated. If it is necessary to be angry with one during class,
reassure her before she leaves and make her feel that you love her very much.”
In order for her religious to be able to devote themselves to the most demanding
tasks, they needed to be in robust health and the foundress declared to them: “I
wish to see you all happy, eating heartily and resting well at night. Yes, be
joyful, Jesus is pleased to live in the heart of a religious who accepts
everything with a holy joy.” In a letter to a mistress of novices, Joaquima
wrote, “Since among the novices there are some who are fearful, these fears must
cease. May they strive to always do what God wishes them to do!” Reassure her!”
Thanks to new laws that protected charitable activities, Joaquima and her daughters were able to offer their services in municipal hospitals. As both a daughter and wife of men of the law, she knew how to take advantage of the laws in force to assist the poor, her charges. The impact of her congregation on local authorities and on communities grew to the point that vocations poured in, and the services of the Carmelites of Charity were requested from towns far and wide. However, when the congregation had been in existence only seven years, the first Carlist War (1833-1839) brought about the closing of almost all the houses, as well as Joaquima’s imprisonment. Indeed, she was called an enemy of the victorious State, because one of her sons had enlisted in the Carlist militias (legitimist royalists, supporters of Don Carlos, opposed to the liberal monarchy in Madrid). After a harsh persecution and a brief prison stay, she finally was forced into self-imposed exile in France, where the city of Perpignan welcomed her for three years (1840-1843). From there, she could still maintain an exchange of letters with her communities that had been spared by the government. Life in the capital of Roussillon was not easy. Living in a too small apartment and surviving by doing a few odd jobs, the fifteen Sisters and the Superior saw the death of three of them. The foundress wrote to her deputy for the Spanish communities: “In spite of all that I am currently living, that I have already lived through, and all that I am seeing, God always sustains me by giving me courage so that I do not completely succumb. This is why, my daughter, I can affirm that on the way of the cross, it is Jesus Who carries it. Amen! Forward!” The varied, unforeseen and unsettling circumstances of her life had taught Joaquima that it is abandoning oneself totally into God’s hands that makes it possible to endure all things. Her apostolic dynamism remained steeped in contemplative life. In her numerous occupations, she remained closely united with God. Her motto could have been: “Action through contemplation.”
An inestimable comfort
Exhausted by such dedication, the foundress’ strength weakened. In 1849, she had already suffered a stroke. Seated in a wheelchair, she witnessed the continuing flourishing of her congregation in the hands of her successor. The morning of August 28, 1854, in Barcelona where she had moved at the end of 1852, she suffered a stroke. The cholera epidemic carried her off on this same day, around three o’clock in the afternoon, at the age of seventy-one. This disease would claim four hundred victims in the House of Charity that she herself had founded. Joaquima de Vedruna, a widow, left behind six living children, eleven grandchildren and an institute that numbered 150 sisters spread out among thirty communities. Beatified by Pius XII on May 19, 1940, she was canonized on April 12, 1959 by Saint John XXIII. Under the mantle of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the tertiary Carmelites of Charity-Vedruna continue today their unceasing devotion to serving others. They currently number more than 2,500 religious, carrying out their mission in twenty-three countries on four continents.
Saint Joaquima reminds us that we can sanctify ourselves whatever our state in life and be faithful to the Lord “Who calls”. She shows that the life of sacrifice, illumined by humility and prayer, is a short path to Heaven. Let us put her teaching to good use in our own lives.
Dom Antoine Marie osb
mail : abbey@clairval.com
http://www.clairval.com/retraites.en.php
http://www.clairval.com/sample.en.php#textes-fondamentaux
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MUDELLI TA’ QDUSIJA
S. Ġwakkina de Vedruna de Mas
Fundatriċi tas-Sorijiet Karmelitani tal-Karità
minn P. Hermann Duncan, O.Carm.
Qabel it-taqlib li seħħ mir-Rivoluzzjoni Franċiża, il-familja nobbli Vedruna kienet laħqet il-quċċata tal-poter u l-prestiġju tagħha fil-Grigal ta’ Spanja. Huma kienu rrispettati ħafna għall-integrità u s-saħħa tagħhom, kif ukoll għall-influwenza tagħhom fost il-familji għonja f’Barċellona u l-kampanja tal-Katalonja. Lorenzo de Vedruna u martu Teresa Vidal rabbew it-tmien ulied li kellhom biex ikunu aristokratiċi tajbin u perfetti, u qatt ma ħolmu li l-ħames wild tagħhom, Ġwakkina, kienet se tkun differenti. Imma kienet.
Ġwakkina twieldet fis-16 ta’ April 1783, u ġiet mgħammda fl-istess jum fil-parroċċa tal-Madonna del Pino. Hija kienet tifla ferriħija u kellha entużjażmu tipiku li wieħed isib fit-tfal. Kellha wkoll attrazzjoni pjuttost normali għad-devozzjonijiet reliġjużi u tradizzjonali ta’ dak iż-żmien. Fl-età żgħira ta’ tnax-il sena, hija xtaqet li tidħol fil-monasteru tal-Karmelitani tal-klawsura, u baqgħet mistagħġba li ġiet miċħuda. Il-ġenituri tagħha kienu ċerti li din il-ħaġa kienet xi fantasija tagħha u kienet sejra tgħaddi. Iżda għaddiet għal ftit ta’ żmien.
Il-ħajja ta’ Ġwakkina kienet mimlija b’talb qawwi u kellha għarfien kbir tal-preżenza ta’ Alla. Anke l-ħin li għaddiet tħit jew fil-ġnien, saru għaliha għarfien spiritwali, jew mumenti biex tiddedika lil Alla sal-iċken azzjonijiet ta’ ħajjitha. Jekk hi ma setgħetx tgħix ħajjitha bħala soru fis-skiet tal-monasteru, mela Alla kien qed isejħilha għal xi vokazzjoni oħra.
Fl-1799, wieħed avukat żagħżugħ jismu Teodoro de Mas, talab lil Ġwakkina biex tiżżewġu, u l-ġenituri tagħha qablu. Għalkemm kien kemxejn ikbar mill-għarusa tiegħu, Teodoro kien gustuż u ġej minn familja tajba. Il-ġenituri ta’ Ġwakkina ħassew li kien tajjeb għat-tifla tagħhom. Għall-ewwel, Ġwakkina ħasset li kienet ċaħdet is-sejħa veru tagħha. Imma ladarba saret taf ir-raġel tagħha, skopriet li kellhom ħafna affarijiet komuni. Pereżempju, huwa kien ikkunsidra bis-serjetà li jingħaqad mal-Franġiskani, u kien iħobb it-talb u jagħmel il-karitajiet. Għalhekk il-koppja ddeċidew li jrabbu lit-tfal tagħhom biex isiru Nsara tajbin, u jekk Ġwakkina kienet tixtieq, setgħet iktar tard tidħol ġo monasteru.
Ġara li huma rabbew disat itfal f’atmosfera tajba u qaddisa f’darhom. Iżda ma kinux imbierka bl-istess stabbiltà taż-żminijiet ta’ qabel. Spanja ġiet imdaħħla fil-gwerra u fir-rivoluzzjoni meta Napuljun mexxa t-truppi Franċiżi tiegħu lejn Spanja biex jieħu f’idejh il-pajjiż Spanjol. Biex ikunu iktar ħielsa mill-periklu, Teodoro ħa l-familja tiegħu minn Barċellona għal post twelidu jismu Vic, u mbagħad ingħaqad mal-forzi Spanjoli li kienu qed jiġġieldu biex jiddefendu arthom. Ġwakkina u t-tfal tagħha rnexxielhom jaħarbu minn ġemgħa ta’ suldati qawwija, u hi emmnet li dan il-ħelsien seħħ permess tal-għajnuna ta’ Alla. Iżda l-vjolenza u t-tixrid tad-demm ħarbtu lil kulħadd, u ħadd fi Spanja ma baqa’ l-istess.
Matul it-taqlib tal-gwerra, Ġwakkina kompliet tkun omm iddedikata u tħobb lil uliedha. Teodoro rriżenja mill-armata fl-1813, hekk kif il-gwerra kienet waslet fi tmiemha. Huwa reġa’ lura lejn daru bit-tama li jerġa’ jgħix ħajja normali. Iżda s-snin tal-gwerra kienu ta’ ħsara serja għall-saħħtu. Ġwakkina kienet diġà ndunat li dalwaqt tisfa’ waħedha. Ġara li Teodoro miet f'daqqa fl-1816, meta hija kien għad għandha 33 sena. Minkejja dan, hija ddeċidiet li twettaq ir-responsabbiltajiet kollha tagħha, u bl-għajnuna ta’ Alla, ħadet ħsieb li trabbi lil uliedha. Għal għaxar snin iddedikat ruħha għat-tfal tagħha, u użat il-wirt sostanzjali tagħha biex tassigura l-futur tagħhom. Imma għexet ukoll ta’ mara sempliċi, kompliet titlob u tgħin lill-morda ta’ Vic.
Wieħed wara l-ieħor, it-tfal tagħha bdew jitilqu mid-dar. Erba’ minn uliedha daħlu fil-kongregazzjoni mwaqqfa min ommhom, tnejn iżżewġu, u tlieta minnhom mietu. Hawnhekk Ġwakkina bdiet taħseb dwar il-futur tagħha. Għalkemm hija qatt ma tilfet ir-relazzjoni ta’ mħabba tagħha lejn uliedha, hija ddeċidiet li tuża l-ħiliet tagħha biex tagħmel opri ta’ ħniena. Id-direttur spiritwali tagħha, Patri Esteban de Olot, Franġiskan Kapuċċin, kien reliġjuż ta’ karità u tagħlim kbir. Huwa taha parir biex ma tidħolx f’xi komunità reliġjuża li teżisti, imma taħseb biex twaqqaf komunità hi stess. Huwa kien ġibdilha l-attenzjoni li hija diġà kienet tajba f'żewġ forom ta’ ministeru: it-tagħlim taż-żgħażagħ u l-kura tal-morda. U għalhekk il-kongregazzjoni tagħha kellha tiffoka fuq dawn iż-żewġ xogħlijiet. Bil-barka tal-Isqof Corcuera ta’ Vic, hija waqqfet il-Karmelitani tal-Karità. Fl-1826 għamlet il-voti tagħha f’idejn dan l-istess Isqof. L-ewwel komunità kienet tikkonsisti biss minn disa’ sorijiet, imma ħadu l-wegħdiet tagħhom mimlija tama u entużjażmu.
Fis-snin bikrija huma għexu f’faqar kbir. Id-donaturi għonja evitaw kwalunkwe kuntatt ma’ dan il-grupp li kellu dehra li kien iddestinat għall-falliment. Madanakollu fi żmien qasir, is-sorijiet kienu waqqfu sptar f’Tarrega, u qdew lin-nies bl-aħjar mod li setgħu. Għal darb’oħra, Ġwakkina u s-sorijiet tagħha sofrew mit-tbatijiet tal-gwerra. Il-Gwerer Karlisti kissru lil Spanja. Kien hemm ġlieda morra bejn il-frazzjonijiet politiċi, iżda s-sorijiet għenu u kkuraw il-midruba taż-żewġ naħat, u ħolqu żona newtrali mibnija fuq l-imħabba u l-ħniena. Ġwakkina għal darb’oħra kellha taħrab lejn Franza, lejn Rousillon, għal perjodu qasir biex tevita l-perikli tal-vjolenza.
Meta fl-1843 reġgħet lura, is-sorijiet tagħha għaddew minn żmien fejn bdew jikbru u jiżviluppaw. Ġwakkina u s-sorijiet tagħha pprofessaw l-aħħar wegħdiet tagħhom f’idejn Sant Anton Marija Claret, ir-rappreżentant tal-Knisja. Fl-1850, bl-approvazzjoni finali ta’ Ruma, bdew jinxterdu madwar Spanja u wkoll f’pajjiżi oħra. Imma fl-istess sena, Ġwakkina sofriet il-bidu ta’ paraliżi li ġegħlitha tnaqqas l-attività qawwija tagħha. Għalkemm il-qawwa mentali tagħha kienet timpressjonak, hija ċediet it-tmexxija tagħha lil ħaddieħor, u marret lura biex tgħix ħajja sempliċi ta’ soru. Saħħitha bdiet sejra lura bil-mod il-mod sakemm mietet fit-28 ta’ Awwissu 1854, fl-età ta’ 71 sena. Ġiet midfuna fid-dar prinċipali tagħhom ġewwa Vic.
Il-kongregazzjoni tagħha ġiet approvata b’digriet Papali tliet snin wara mewtha mill-Papa Piju IX fil-5 ta’ Awwissu 1857, waqt li l-Kongregazzjoni ġiet affiljata mal-Ordni Karmelitan fl-14 ta’ Settembru 1860. L-approvazzjoni uffiċjali saret fl-20 ta’ Lulju 1880 mill-Papa Ljun XIII.
Illum, il-Kongregazzjoni tinsab ġewwa l-Ewropa, l-Amerka, l-Ażja u l-Afrika. Sas-sena 2008 kien hemm madwar 2012-il reliġjuża f’280 dar.
Ġwakkina ġiet ibbeatifikata fid-19 ta’ Mejju 1940 mill-Papa Piju XII fil-Bażilika ta’ San Pietru f’Ruma. Aktar tard ġiet ddikjarata qaddisa mill-Papa Ġwanni XXIII fit-12 ta’ April 1959 fl-istess Bażilika. It-tifkira tagħha ssir fl-Ordni Karmelitan fit-22 ta’ Mejju.
Il-Karmelu, April-Ġunju 84/2 (2019), p 22-23.
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