Sunday, May 22, 2016: Blessed Joachima (Feast Day: May 22) (1783-1854):
From: http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/saint.aspx?id=1410&calendar=1 (Pics from elsewhere on the internet)
May 22
Blessed Joachima
(1783-1854)
Born into an aristocratic family in Barcelona, Spain, Joachima was 12 when she
expressed a desire to become a Carmelite nun. But her life took an altogether
different turn at 16 with her marriage to a young lawyer, Theodore de Mas. Both
deeply devout, they became secular Franciscans. During their 17 years of married
life they raised eight children.
The normalcy of their family life was interrupted when Napoleon invaded Spain.
Joachima had to flee with the children; Theodore, remaining behind, died. Though
Joachima reexperienced a desire to enter a religious community, she attended to
her duties as a mother. At the same time, the young widow led a life of
austerity and chose to wear the habit of the Third Order of St. Francis as her
ordinary dress. She spent much time in prayer and visiting the sick.
Four years later, with some of her children now married and younger ones under
their care, Joachima confessed her desire to a priest to join a religious order.
With his encouragement she established the Carmelite Sisters of Charity. In the
midst of the fratricidal wars occurring at the time, Joachima was briefly
imprisoned and, later, exiled to France for several years.
Sickness ultimately compelled her to resign as superior of her order. Over the
next four years she slowly succumbed to paralysis, which caused her to die by
inches. At her death in 1854 at the age of 71, Joachima was known and admired
for her high degree of prayer, deep trust in God and selfless charity.
Comment:
Joachima understands loss. She lost the home where her children grew up, her
husband and, finally, her health. As the power to move and care for her own
needs slowly ebbed away, this woman who had all her life cared for others became
wholly dependent; she required help with life’s simplest tasks. When our own
lives go spinning out of control, when illness and bereavement and financial
hardship strike, all we can do is cling to the belief that sustained Joachima:
God watches over us always.
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