The candle which we will place on the candle stand this month is someone who was raised to the altar on 11 February 2024. She is the first woman from Argentina to be honoured as a saint. She is the first Argentinian to be canonized by an Argentine Pope.
Her baptismal name is Mario Antonia de Paz Figueroa, but today everyone calls her lovingly ‘Mama Antula’ which means ‘Little Mother.’ She was born in 1730 in Silipico, Santiago del Estro in northern Argentina. Belonging to an illustrious family of rulers and conquerors who were wealthy, she showed no regard for riches or social status. She was a very devout child. At the age of 15, she declared she would never marry and that she wanted to be a consecrated virgin all her life, so that she was able to devote herself entirely to God.
Those who are truly close to God seem to quickly understand that God loves the poor. She took to serving the poor and the sick. Initially she also helped the parents instruct their children. A few women who admired her and her work soon joined her and they lived as a small community. Her spiritual guide was a Jesuit priest, Fr Gaspar Juarez. She understood that what distinguished the Jesuits was the Ignatian spirituality that was rooted in the classical work, Spiritual Exercises, written by St. Ignatius of Loyola.
Fr M.A. Joe Antony SJ
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