Tuesday, October 21, 2008
MOTHER IGNACIA DEL ESPIRITU SANTO
This photo of a nun I had taken at Santa Cruz, Manila, reminds me of Ignacia Incua; otherwise known as Mother Ignacia del Espiritu Santo, a mestiza born in Binondo on February 1, 1663, to Jusepe Incua, a Chinese, and Maria Jeronima, a native Filipina. Her affluent family gave her a Christian education. She grew up very much enraptured by the story and teachings of Jesus.
At age 21, she declined a marriage proposal by a Spaniard, Captain Ricardo de Lodero y Salvacion; opting instead to devote her entire life to God. However, being not of pure Spanish blood, she was denied entry to two religious houses: Beatero de Santo Domingo and Santa Clara Monstery.
Without any other choice, she led a life in seclusion in a house across the San Ignacio church to make it easy for her and her companions to attend mass and engage in other spiritual exercises. This house was later founded as the Beaterio de la Compañia, located at the corner of Calle Victoria and Calle Santa Lucia in Intramuros. It was to become the first all-Filipino religious congregation for women in the Philippines -- Religious of the Virgin Mary (RVM, 1684).
The initial 50 members -- known as the beatas -- were comprised of lay sisters dedicated to prayer and charitable work. They supported the congregation by doing manual work and begging out in the streets. They also helped women make a spiritual retreat following the Ignatian method; assisting them in their preparation for confession and communion, and reading spiritual works for them in Tagalog. The Beaterio also admitted pupils, all girls, who received fundamental education and training in home economics.
Under the leadership of Mother Ignacia, the beatas endured hardships, lived in extreme poverty, garbed in coarse black habit, existed on austere diet eaten on communal banana leaves, and slept in dark rooms. On top of such rigid puritanical existence, Mother Ignacia also led a severe penitential life by practicing self-flagellation and -mortification, such as lying prostrate on the floor and begging others to step on her. At other times, she was seen dragging a heavy wooden cross on her shoulders, or arms outstretched like a cross for hours on end. Hers was an astounding life filled with severe self-inflicted pain, as if desperately absolving herself from some massive guilt that gnawed at her soul.
On the day she died on September 10, 1748, she was found motionless as she remained kneeling on the communion rail of the San Ignacio Church long after receiving communion. During her interment, she was given full honors by the Spanish administration and church authorities.
Pope Benedict XVI has issued a decree bestowing Mother Ignacia del Espiritu Santo the title "venerable," two steps away from sainthood. The sisters of the congregation she founded, now known as the Congregation of the Religious of the Virgin Mary, currently maintain St. Mary's College for Girls in Quezon City and run 11 colleges, 63 high schools, and 30 elementary schools throughout the Philippines. It owns more than 700 houses in the country and three in America: in Arkansas, in Las Vegas, Nevada, and in Sacramento, California.
Historically, Mother Ignacia is known as the first Filipina to found a congregation for women.
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I very much appreciate my articles and photos appearing on fellow bloggers' sites, popular broadsheets, and local broadcast news segments, but I would appreciate even more a request for permission first.
Thank you!
I very much appreciate my articles and photos appearing on fellow bloggers' sites, popular broadsheets, and local broadcast news segments, but I would appreciate even more a request for permission first.
Thank you!
Labels: Manila history, religious
posted by Señor Enrique at 10:53 AM
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