Feast Day of all Mercedarians;
the MMB Sisters at Maturana
The Blessed Mother, under the title Our Lady of Mercy, is celebrated each September 24 by Mercedarians worldwide. She was God’s instrument to call forth into existence in the year 1218 a new religious family—The Order of Mercy (a.k.a. Mercedarians) for the Church.
One cloistered Mercedarian convent of women in the small village of Berriz, in the Basque country in the North of Spain, was the community into which Pilar Lopez de Maturana entered in 1903. By 1906, the already professed Pilar, now known as Mother Margarita Maria, began teaching in the convent boarding school. The school began in the late 19th century as the convent’s main means of livelihood.
The missionary movement within the Church began in Spain in 1919. After two returning missionaries visited the school asking the girls for prayers for their missions, the enthusiasm for the missions spread throughout the school with the encouragement of Mother Margarita. The enthusiasm of the girls for the missions could not help but spill over to the Sisters of the convent. The possibility of change that such an initiative could produce proved daunting.
“Within the community, Mother Nieves learns of the worry and fear that a sister has for the future of the house. She confides in Mother Margarita. They understand the situation, but continue in trust with the work that they had undertaken. In 1923 Mother Nieves is reelected mother general of the community and Mother Margarita becomes a counselor of the community and named principal of the school. It was a vote of confidence for the work that they were doing. Mother Margarita begins to wonder about the plans that God had for Berriz.”
Feast Day-Sept. 24
Mother Maria Nieves Urizar, as the superior of the convent, became a pivotal instrument of God in guiding and supporting the new direction that the house in Berriz was about to take.
“God is transforming her [Mother Margarita] as he is transforming Berriz. His plans for Berriz begin to take shape. They observed a triduum of prayer in order to discover the will of God. What they contemplated was active cooperation with the missions. The triduum served to confirm these plans.
A few months later, Mother Nieves suggested to the community the possibility of sending a group of religious to Wuhu, in the Vicariate of Anhui, China. She asked that the nuns freely declare their feeling about the plan, in writing . . . The majority of the nuns held a favorable view of the plan. All of the nuns had love for Missionary Work, for the Order, for the house and for the sisters.”
Several more years of on-going discernment followed with Mother Nieves and Mother Margarita working closely together with the community of sisters in Berriz. With papal approval, convinced that God’s will was for them to go to the missions, the first missionaries left the Berriz convent on September 19, 1926.
Mother Margarita wrote in her journal the following day:
“Monday, September 20
Berriz is beginning a new era. It opened its doors to the world and its first missionaries breached papal enclosure. Yesterday, we had the sendoff. The Archbishop of Valencia presided over the Eucharist. Mr. Angel Sagarminaga preached. Family members, friends, people from the surrounding area, and more than 200 students were in attendance. It was all very moving. It was a very special moment when Mother Nieves blessed the missionaries. Then the archbishop placed the Cross upon them. People rushed forward to kiss it, which made it difficult to leave the church. In the small plaza in front an immense crowd awaited the missionaries. Being at peace and happy, the missionaries had words of inspiration for everyone.
It’s been a very full day and one of mixed emotions. . . I attribute this to the natural feelings that come from separation and the fact that the sisters who left were like the right arm of the community. Mother Nieves and I have spoken about this and we have come to the same conclusion: we would do this a thousand times again in order that missions receive the best.”
On the Feast Day of Our Lady of Mercy on September 24, 1926 the first missionary expedition then departed from Marseille, France on the ship Chambord headed to Wuhu, China to establish the first foundation outside the convent of Berriz.
With humility and in God’s loving hands, as Mary our Mother, Mother Nieves and Mother Margarita, we can each be instruments of God’s vision for the world.
Happy Feast Day—Our Lady of Mercy—to all Mercedarians, especially the daughters of Mother Margarita—the Mercedarian Missionaries of Berriz—throughout the world! Quoted Source: Margarita Maria – A Journey of Transformation from the Cloister to the World.
