Pope Francis will canonize this weekend 4 “Maries” on Sunday 15 May. The Pope will preside over the first canonizations in more than two years in a ceremony in which, among other Blesseds, four founders of religious orders named after the Virgin Mary will be elevated to the altars.
Here are the stories of these four holy women.
Marie River
When the French Revolution forced the closure of convents and monasteries throughout France and priests and nuns were martyred under the Reign of Terror, this 28-year-old French woman founded in 1796 the Congregation of the Sisters of the Presentation of Mary, dedicated to the education of young people in the faith.
The congregation received official sanction in 1801 and spread throughout France.
The nun struggled for much of her childhood with a disability that caused her joints to swell and her limbs to shrink. She could barely stand with the help of crutches, according to the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
Her health problems also hampered her ability to enter religious life, but Ella Rivier persevered and helped educate unemployed women in her parish before founding her congregation.
Within a few decades of her death in 1838, the Sisters of the Presentation of Mary spread to Canada and the United States. Today the sisters are present on the five continents.
Anna Maria Rubatto (Maria Francesca de Jesus)
Blessed Mother Francisca Rubatto was a founding 19th-century missionary who crossed the Atlantic Ocean seven times by ship to establish the Congregation of the Capuchin Sisters, an order of Capuchin sisters who settled in Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil.
The Italian nun, originally from the province of Turin, was born in 1844 and her name was Anna Maria Rubatto. She lost her mother when she was four years old and her father when she was 19.
She worked as a servant and cultivated a deep spirituality, visiting a church daily to pray, but she did not discover her vocation until she was 40 years old.
One day, as she was leaving a church, she heard the screams of a mason who had been injured by a stone falling from the scaffolding on his head. Sor MarÃa helped wash and heal her wounds. She discovered that the building she had been working on was a convent. The Capuchin friar who was supervising its construction invited her to join as a founding member and then first superior of the Congregation of Tertiary Capuchin Sisters of Loano.
In just seven years, Mother Mary traveled to Latin America to found new houses as her religious order grew. Today, the sisters are known as the Capuchin Sisters of Mother Rubatto and are present in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya and other countries in Latin America, Europe and Africa.
Maria Domenica Mantovani
Maria Domenica Mantovani was the first superior general of the Congregation of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family, which she co-founded in 1892, at age 29, to serve the poor, the orphaned and the sick.
Serving as superior general of the order for more than 40 years, Mother Mantovani wrote the order’s constitutions and oversaw the opening of numerous convents.
When she died in 1934, the Little Sisters of the Holy Family had grown to 1,200 sisters in 150 convents in Italy and abroad.
Maria de Jesus Santocanale
Mother Mary of Jesus founded the Congregation of the Capuchin Sisters of the Immaculate of Lourdes in Sicily in 1910.
Born in Palermo in 1852, Carolina Santocanale felt from an early age the desire to consecrate herself to God despite the wishes of her father. Under the spiritual guidance of Fr. Mauro Venuti, she discerned to dedicate her life to works of charity with the poor instead of entering the cloister.
At the age of 32, she began to experience significant health problems. Severe pain in her legs caused her to be bedridden for more than a year. After her illness, she embraced an even more radical Franciscan spirituality.
After making her first vows at the age of 39, she spent most of her free moments in front of the tabernacle. She oversaw the establishment of an orphanage and nursery school, and fostered many vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life.
Today, the Sisters of Mother Santocanale are present in Albania, Brazil, Italy and Madagascar.
Adapted from aciprensa