Laura of Saint Catherine of Siena Montoya

Laura Montoya y Upegui was born on 26 May 1874 in Jericó, in the department of Antioquia, Colombia, to Juan de la Cruz Montoya and Dolores Upegui, a modest and fervently Christian family. She was the second of three children and was baptized the same day. When she was about three years old, during the Colombian civil conflict of 1876, her father was killed by political opponents while defending homeland and faith. The household was left poor; unable to care for all her children, her mother entrusted little Laura to her maternal grandparents at the estate "La Vívora" near Amalfi.

With her grandparents she received a strong human and religious formation, memorizing the catechism, and in July 1881, at the age of seven, she made her First Communion. She later lived for a time under the care of a maternal aunt who managed an orphanage, and she learned to read and write largely on her own before formal schooling. She completed primary studies in various villages where her mother taught, then settled in Medellín to attend the normal school for teachers. After graduating as a teacher in 1893, she directed the Higher School for Young Ladies in Amalfi and taught in Fredonia, Santo Domingo, and, from 1909, at the College of the Immaculate in Medellín.

From childhood she felt a call to religious and missionary life and longed to become a Discalced Carmelite; at the same time she was pierced by the neglect of Colombia's Indigenous peoples and the lack of anyone to bring them the Gospel. Her vocation thus swung between enclosure and the forest. In 1907, at the age of thirty-three, while teaching in Marinilla, she experienced with special intensity the mystery of God's Fatherhood. She later testified that she saw herself enveloped in that paternity and made mother of the unfaithful in the most intense way, as if children she did not yet know were being formed in her; from then on she called them "my wound." This grace fixed her desire for spiritual motherhood and for the evangelization of those living without Christian faith, especially the Indigenous of vast Colombian regions.

In 1908 she made her first apostolic journey to the Guapá–Chamí region with two companions and a priest. The happy outcome included the collective baptism of seventy-two Embera-Chamí Indigenous people and her firm decision to dedicate her life to the missions. Returning to Medellín, she organized further missionary journeys with her mother and companions in what she called the "Work of the Indians." Advised by ecclesiastical superiors to give the work a stable foundation, she began the Congregation of the Missionaries of Mary Immaculate and Saint Catherine of Siena. On 14 May 1914 she left Medellín with four other women for Dabeiba to live among the native peoples. The Institute received its first ecclesiastical approval in 1916. Laura of Saint Catherine of Siena made her first profession on 1 January 1917 and perpetual profession on 8 December 1924. She was elected first superior general and governed until 1929, then again from 1938 until her death.

Her motto was to become Indigenous with the Indigenous in order to win them all for Christ. Despite calumnies, hardships, and criticism even within Christian circles, she found strength in God and in the Blessed Virgin Mary, to whom she had wholly consecrated herself. While she still lived, more than a hundred houses were opened in Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela; hundreds of young women joined her. At her death her spiritual daughters numbered 467, spread in several countries. After nine years in a wheelchair and a long agony, she died in Medellín on 21 October 1949.

Fame of holiness led to informative processes in Medellín in 1963–64. The cause was introduced in 1976; she was declared Venerable for heroic virtue on 22 January 1991, beatified by Pope John Paul II on 25 April 2004, and canonized by Pope Francis on 12 May 2013, the first saint of Colombia.

May Saint Laura obtain for us a share in her missionary charity, and let us practice today the spiritual motherhood that seeks every neglected soul for Christ.

HOLY MASS AND CANONIZATIONS

HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS

Saint Peter's Square Seventh Sunday of Easter, 12 May 2013

Dear brothers and sisters!

On this seventh Sunday of Easter Time we have gathered with joy to celebrate a feast of holiness. We give thanks to God who has made his glory shine, the glory of Love, upon the Martyrs of Otranto, upon Mother Laura Montoya and upon Mother María Guadalupe García Zavala. I greet all of you who have come for this feast – from Italy, from Colombia, from Mexico, from other countries – and I thank you!

We want to look at the new Saints in the light of the Word of God that has been proclaimed. A Word that has invited us to faithfulness to Christ, even to the point of martyrdom; has recalled to us the urgency and the beauty of bringing Christ and his Gospel to all; and has spoken to us of the witness of charity, without which even martyrdom and mission lose their Christian flavour.

The Acts of the Apostles, when they speak to us of the deacon Stephen, the protomartyr, insist on saying that he was a man "full of the Holy Spirit" (6:5; 7:55). What does this mean? It means that he was full of the Love of God, that his whole person, his life was animated by the Spirit of the risen Christ, so much so that he followed Jesus with total fidelity, even to the gift of himself.

Today the Church proposes to our veneration a host of martyrs, who were called together to the supreme witness of the Gospel, in 1480. About eight hundred people, who had survived the siege and invasion of Otranto, were beheaded near that city. They refused to renounce their faith and died confessing the risen Christ. Where did they find the strength to remain faithful? Precisely in the faith, which allows us to see beyond the limits of our human gaze, beyond the boundary of earthly life, makes us contemplate "the heavens opened" – as Saint Stephen says – and the living Christ at the right hand of the Father. Dear friends, let us preserve the faith we have received and which is our true treasure, let us renew our fidelity to the Lord, even amid obstacles and misunderstandings; God will never fail to give us strength and serenity.

As we venerate the Martyrs of Otranto, let us ask God to sustain so many Christians who, right at this time and in so many parts of the world, even now suffer violence, and to give them the courage of fidelity and to respond to evil with good.

The second thought we can draw from the words of Jesus that we have heard in the Gospel: "I pray for those who will believe in me through their word: that all may be one; as you, Father, are in me and I in you, may they also be in us" (Jn 17:20). Saint Laura Montoya was an instrument of evangelization first as a teacher and then as a spiritual mother of the indigenous people, to whom she instilled hope, welcoming them with the love she had learned from God and leading them to him with a pedagogical effectiveness that respected their culture and did not oppose it. In her work of evangelization Mother Laura truly became all things to all people, according to the expression of Saint Paul (cf. 1 Cor 9:22). Even today her spiritual daughters live and bring the Gospel to the most remote and needy places, like a sort of vanguard of the Church.

This first saint born in the beautiful land of Colombia teaches us to be generous with God, not to live the faith alone – as if it were possible to live the faith in an isolated way – but to communicate it, to bring the joy of the Gospel with word and with

Finally, a third thought. In today's Gospel, Jesus prays to the Father with these words: "I have made your name known to them and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them" (Jn 17:26). The faithfulness of the martyrs to the point of death and the proclamation of the Gospel to all are rooted in, have their root in, the love of God poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom 5:5), and in the witness that we must give of this love in our daily life. Saint María Guadalupe García Zavala knew this well. By renouncing a comfortable life – how much harm a comfortable life, well-being, does; the "embourgeoisement" of the heart paralyzes us – by renouncing a comfortable life to follow Jesus' call, she taught how to love poverty, in order to be able to love the poor and the sick more. Mother Lupita would kneel on the floor of the Hospital before the sick and the abandoned to serve them with tenderness and compassion. And this is called: "touching the flesh of Christ". The poor, the abandoned, the sick, the marginalized are the flesh of Christ. And Mother Lupita touched the flesh of Christ and taught us this way of acting: not to be ashamed, not to be afraid, not to feel disgust at "touching the flesh of Christ"! Mother Lupita had understood what this "touching the flesh of Christ" means. Even today her spiritual daughters seek to reflect God's love in works of charity, without sparing sacrifices and facing with meekness, with apostolic perseverance (hypomon?), courageously enduring any obstacle.

This new Mexican Saint invites us to love as Jesus has loved us, and this entails not closing ourselves in on ourselves, in our problems, in our ideas, in our interests, in this small world that does us so much harm, but going out and meeting those who need attention, understanding, help, to bring them the warm closeness of God's love, through gestures of delicacy, sincere affection and love.

Faithfulness to Christ and to his Gospel, in order to proclaim it with word and life, bearing witness to God's love with our love, with our charity towards all: these are luminous examples and teachings offered to us by the Saints proclaimed today, but which also raise questions for our Christian life: How am I faithful to Christ? Let us carry this question with us, to reflect on it during the day: how am I faithful to Christ? Am I able to "show" my faith with respect, but also with courage? Am I attentive to others, do I notice those in need, do I see everyone as brothers and sisters to be loved? Let us ask, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of the new Saints, that the Lord may fill our life with the joy of his love. So be it.

APOSTOLIC LETTERS

on the completed beatification

JOHN PAUL PP. II

to perpetuate the memory of the matter

As He was hanging on the cross and wished to draw all things to Himself, Jesus, at the point of death, cried out: "I thirst" (Jn 19:28).

It was not a thirst for water, but for souls. This cry of Jesus took hold of the soul of the Venerable Servant of God Laura of St Catherine of Siena, known in secular life by the name of Maria Laura Montoya y Upegui, and stirred up in her the desire to quench the thirst of Jesus, by bringing to Him the souls He so greatly desired: "If You thirst for souls and I indeed thirst to quench Your thirst, why do You not satisfy my eagerness...? Grant that I may pay the price for those souls and that they may form Your crown".

Since she greatly desired to save souls and to bring the message of the Gospel to those who did not know Jesus the Saviour, especially to the indigenous peoples, she and her missionary companions constantly pursued this goal in their apostolic life.

Born on 26 May 1874 in the town of Jericó in the nation of Colombia to a truly Christian family, she was three years old when her father was killed while defending his homeland and religion. Since her mother could not support the three children, she entrusted the youngest, that is Laura, to her maternal grandparents. She did not attend school until she was sixteen years old, but taught herself to read and write. She later enrolled in a teacher-training school, obtained the diploma of teacher and taught in several villages; she was also appointed headmistress of a college in Medellín. There she heard about some indigenous people hidden in the mountains and jungles, excluded from social life.

They did not know Christ and were not considered true citizens. Laura, beset by calumnies and hardships, found comfort and strength of soul in God and in the Virgin Mary, to whom she had completely consecrated herself, and she increasingly perceived the sufferings of the weaker and more abandoned, being particularly struck by the indigenous peoples abandoned by all and far from Christ. She often thought of consecrating herself to God in a cloistered monastery, but then she perceived that the "I thirst" of Christ crucified was a longing to bring to Him those who did not know Him. She realised that God was calling her to bring the Kingdom of Christ to all the indigenous peoples and to restore to them the dignity of children of God and of citizens.

In 1914, together with her mother and five companions, she set out for the mountains of the Dabeiba region in order to find the indigenous people. This was later repeated. Soon she was accompanied by courageous young women who would climb the mountains, penetrate the densest forests and cross rivers in order to evangelise the indigenous peoples. Thus in 1917 the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception and of St Catherine of Siena was founded. Over the years Laura gave an example of outstanding virtues. Even as a young woman she realised that she was drawn by God. "My heart," she would say, "hurls itself at God like a projectile from a war engine." Her faith, which she used to cultivate with assiduous prayer, enabled her to see Christ in the most abandoned, especially in the indigenous peoples. Remarkable was her love for the Eucharist, which she instilled in her daughters and in the indigenous peoples.

She also cultivated a most tender love for the Virgin Mary. The name of Mary was like a banner that opened the door to the hearts of the indigenous peoples. She spent the last years of her life, almost completely paralysed, in prayer and in writing to her daughters, encouraging them in their work. Shortly before she died she visited the Virgin Mary of Lourdes.

Strengthened by the Sacraments, she departed this world on 21 October 1949, leaving a reputation for holiness not only in Colombia but also in other nations which her work of evangelisation had reached. On 22 January 1991, when it was declared that her virtues had been practised in a heroic manner, on 7 July 2003 we approved the miracle for her beatification. We therefore decreed that the rite of beatification should be celebrated in Rome on 25 April 2004.

Today in the square of St. Peter's, during the sacred rites, we have pronounced this formula: We, fulfilling the wishes of Our Brothers Joseph Michalik, Archbishop of Przemyśl of the Latins, Alberto Giraldo Jaramillo, Archbishop of Medellín, Cardinal Juan Sandoval Íñiguez, Archbishop of Guadalajara, Cardinal Severino Poletto, Archbishop of Turin, Ignatius Noguer Carmona, Bishop of Huelva, and George Ferreira da Costa Ortiga, Archbishop of Braga, as well as those of many other Brothers in the Episcopate and of many of the Christian faithful, after consultation with the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, by Our Apostolic Authority grant that the Venerable Servants of God Augustus Czartoryski, Laura Montoya, Maria Guadalupe García Zavala, Nemesia Valle, Eusebia Palomino Yenes and Alexandrina Maria da Costa may henceforth be called by the name of Blessed, and that their feast may be celebrated every year on: the second day of August for Augustus Czartoryski, the twenty-first day of October for Laura Montoya, the twenty-seventh day of April for Maria Guadalupe García Zavala, the twenty-sixth day of June for Nemesia Valle, the ninth day of February for Eusebia Palomino Yenes and the thirteenth day of October for Alexandrina Maria da Costa, in the places and according to the ways established by law.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Moreover, what we have decreed in these words, we wish to have force both now and in the future, with no obstacles whatsoever to the contrary.

Given at Rome, at Saint Peter's, under the Fisherman's Ring, on the 25th day of the month of April, in the year 2004, the twenty-sixth of Our Pontificate.

By command of the Supreme Pontiff

+ ANGELUS Card. SODANO

Secretary of State

[Place of the Seal]

In the Secretariat of State register, n. 559.627

PAPAL CHAPEL FOR THE BEATIFICATION OF SIX SERVANTS OF GOD

HOMILY OF JOHN PAUL II

Third Sunday of Easter, 25 April 2004

1. "They knew it was the Lord" (Jn 21:12): thus the evangelist John expresses the disciples' reaction of joy upon recognising the risen Lord. Jesus manifests himself to them after a night of hard and fruitless labour on the lake of Tiberias. Trusting in his word, they cast the nets into the water and bring to shore a "large number of fish" (Jn 21:6).

Like the apostles, we too remain astonished before the richness of the wonders that God works in the hearts of those who trust in him. In the course of today's Eucharistic Celebration we contemplate what he has accomplished in six new Blesseds: in the priest Augusto Czartoryski; in four religious: Laura Montoya, María Guadalupe García Zavala, Nemesia Valle, Eusebia Palomino Yenes; in a laywoman, Alexandrina Maria da Costa. They are eloquent examples of how the Lord transforms the existence of believers when we trust in him.

2. "How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord of hosts... one day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere" (Ps 84/83/:2,11). The blessed Augusto Czartoryski wrote these words of the Psalm as the motto of his life on the card for his first Mass. They contain the rapture of a man who, following the voice of his calling, discovers the beauty of priestly ministry. In them also resounds the echo of the various choices that anyone who discerns God's will and desires to fulfil it must make. Augusto Czartoryski, a young prince, developed an effective method for discerning God's plans. He presented all his questions and deep perplexities to God in prayer, and then in a spirit of obedience he followed the advice of his spiritual guides. In this way he understood his vocation to embrace a life of poverty and to serve the least. The same method enabled him throughout his whole life to make such choices that today we can say he fulfilled the designs of Divine Providence in a heroic way.

I wish to leave the example of his holiness especially to young people, who today are seeking a way to discover God's will for their lives and desire to follow faithfully each day the voice of God. My dear young friends, learn from blessed Augusto to ask fervently in prayer for the light of the Holy Spirit and for wise guides, so that you may know God's plan for your lives and be able always to walk the path of holiness.

3. "It was already dawn when Jesus presented himself on the shore; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus" (Jn 21:4). It is possible for man not to know the Lord, despite his many manifestations throughout history. Mother Laura Montoya, seeing how so many indigenous people, far from urban centers, lived without knowing God, decided to found the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of Mary Immaculate and Saint Catherine of Siena, in order to bring the light of the Gospel to the inhabitants of the forests.

This Colombian Blessed felt herself the spiritual mother of the indigenous people, to whom she wished to show God's love. Her times were not easy, for social tensions were also then staining her noble homeland with blood. Inspired by her message of peace, we ask her today that beloved Colombia may soon enjoy peace, justice and integral progress.

4. In the Gospel we have heard Jesus' triple question to Peter: "Do you love me?" This same question Christ addresses to men and women of all ages. Christians must respond with firmness and promptness to the plans he has for each one. Thus it happened in the life of the Blessed Guadalupe García Zavala, a Mexican, who, renouncing marriage, devoted herself to the service of the poorest, the needy and the sick, and therefore founded the Congregation of the Servants of Saint Margaret Mary and of the Poor.

With deep faith, boundless hope and great love for Christ, Mother Lupita sought her own sanctification through love for the Heart of Jesus and fidelity to the Church. In this way she lived the motto she left to her daughters: "Charity to the point of sacrifice and constancy to the point of death".

5. "To manifest God's love to the little ones, to the poor, to every man, in every part of the earth": this was the commitment of the Blessed Nemesia Valle throughout her entire life. This teaching she leaves in particular to her sisters, the Sisters of Charity of Saint Joan Antida Thouret, as well as to the faithful of the Archdiocese of Turin. It is the example of a luminous holiness, reaching out to the high peaks of evangelical perfection, and which is translated into the simple gestures of daily life spent entirely for God.

The new Blessed continues to repeat to us all: "Holiness does not consist in doing many things or in doing great ones ... A saint is one who is consumed in his own place every day, for the Lord".

6. The Lord says to Peter in a firm and decisive way: "Follow me." Also Sr. Eusebia Palomino, of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, one day heard God's call and responded through an intense spirituality and a profound humility in her daily life. As a good Salesian, she was animated by love for the Eucharist and for the Virgin. What mattered to her was to love and to serve; the rest did not count, faithful to the Salesian maxim of "da mihi animas, caetera tolle".

With the radicality and coherence of her choices, Sr. Eusebia Palomino Yenes traces a fascinating and demanding path of holiness for all of us and especially for the young people of our time.

7. "Do you love me?" - Jesus asks Simon Peter. He replies: "You know everything, Lord, you well know that I love you." The life of Blessed Alexandrina Maria da Costa can be summed up in this dialogue of love. Filled and burning with these longings of love, she does not want to deny anything to her Savior: with a strong will, she accepts everything to show that she loves him. Bride of blood, she mystically relives the passion of Christ and offers herself as a victim for sinners, receiving strength from the Eucharist which becomes the only food of her last thirteen years of life.

Following the path of Blessed Alexandrina, expressed in the trilogy "to suffer, to love, to repair," Christians can find stimulus and motivation to ennoble everything that life has of painful and sad with the greatest proof of love: to sacrifice one's life for the one they love.

8. "Yes Lord, you know that I love you" (Jn 21:15). Like Peter, like the Apostles on the shores of the Lake of Tiberias, also these new Blesseds have made their own, taking it to the extreme consequences, this simple but incisive profession of faith and love. Love for Christ is the secret of holiness!

Dearest Brothers and Sisters, let us follow the example of these Blesseds! Offer, like them, a coherent witness of faith and love in the living and active presence of the Risen One!