Thank you and may God Bless You!
PRAISED BE
JESUS CHRIST,
NOW AND FOREVER!
BLESSED MADRE MARAVILLAS DE JESUS,
NOW SAINT!
Discalced Carmelite, Beatified May 10, 1998
CANONIZED: May 4, 2003
"Lo que Dios quiere"
(Whatever God desires) ...Blessed Madre Maravillas
Maria Maravillas Pidal y Chico de Guzman was born in Madrid on 4th November 1891 and was baptized on the 12th of the same month in the parish of St. Sebastian. She was the daughter of Luis Pidal y Mon and Cristina Chico de Guzman y Munoz, the Marquess and Marchioness of Pidal. At that time her father was Spanish Ambassador to the Holy See, having been minister for Public Works as well as exercising other high positions and being decorated in acknowledgment. He was well-noted for his efforts to help the Church and religious Orders. In such a religious environment the young Maria Maravillas received a conscientious education particularly from her maternal grandmother. She was confirmed in 1896 and made her first communion in 1902.
She was gifted with great natural qualities, among which stood out her clear and deep intelligence and a will directed always towards good. These qualities were brought to perfection by grace to which she faithfully responded.
She had a marked attraction to virtue right from childhood. She herself was to say many years laters that she was born with a religious vociation, and at five years of age, being as she was, she made a vow of chastity. As she was growing up, besides cultivating her life of piety and finishing her private studies in languages and general culture, she devoted herself to charitable, good works, helping many poor and emarginated families. Under the direction of Fr. Juan Francisco Lopez, SJ, her spiritual life unfolded and took shape.
Having come in contact with the works of St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross, she decided to consecrate herself to the Lord in the contemplative life in the Carmelite monastery of El Escorial (Madrid). She was clothed in the Order's habit in 1920 and made her first profession in 1921.
God inspired her to found a Carmel in Cerro de los Angeles (Madrid), the geographical centre of Spain, where a monument to the Sacred Heart and the Nation was consecrated to the Sacred Heart on 30th May 1919 by King Alfonso XIII. On the 19th May 1924, Sister Maravillas and three other religious from El Escorial took up residence in a provisional house in the district of Getafe so that they could by close-by to attend to the building of the convent in Cerro.
She made her solemn profession in this house on 30th May, the same year. In June 1926 she was appointed prioress of the community and a few months after, on 31st October, the new Carmel in Cerro de los Angeles was inaugurated. This monastery was to become a place of prayer and penitence, for the spiritual good of the Church and Spain.
Very quickly it was filled with vocations and Mother Maravillas saw in this an invitation from the Lord to multiply "Our Lady's houses", as she liked to call her Carmels.
In 1933, at the invitation of the Carmelite Bishop, she made a foundation in Kottayam in India. From this Carmel in due time other foundations were made in India.
In July 1936, the Civil War broke out in Spain. The Carmelites of Cerro de los Angeles were arrested and taken to Gestafe. From there they were able to get to Madrid where they managed to set up in an apartment in Claudio Coello street. There followed fourteen months filled with privations and sacrifices, searches and threats. Yet the ardently hoped-for martyrdom desired by the group of Carmelities did not occur. In September 1937 Mother Maravillas managed to leave Madrid with the whole community, reaching the ancient and then abandoned "desert" of las Batuecas (Salamanca), which providentially had been acquired before the war began. Here she was able to found another Carmel, with some of her nuns, at the request of the Bishop of Coria-Caceres.
On 4th March 1939, with another group of nuns she was able to restore the convent of Cerro de los Angeles which had been completely destroyed. With immense effort and fatigue, they were able to restore common life by June the same year. No matter how hard the work she was always the first to be involved. Even in the midst of enormous deprivation, Mother Maravillas knew how to inject courage and happiness, being always an admirable example to her daughters.
More to come...
To write to the Discalced Carmelites of La Aldehuela:
- Carmelitas Descalzas de La Aldehuela, 28909 Getafe (Madrid),
- Carmelitas Descalzas del Cerro de los Ángeles, 28906 Getafe (Madrid).
- Amenábar 450 - Capital Federal -1426
Bl. Madre Maravillas Website (in Spanish) by Gabriela Soledad Ferretti, dedicated especially to Blessed Madre Maravillas who helped her with her transplant.
E-mail: gabrielamaravill@topmail.com.ar or maravilla121@latinmail.com
(Our deepest gratitude to Gabriela for sharing photographs)
Carmel of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph
Discalced Carmelites
Valparaiso, Nebraska
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, please pray for us!
Blessed Madre Maravillas, please pray for us!
Sister Guadalupe, please pray for us!
Blessed Madre Maravillas as a young nun
Family Portrait (Bl Maravillas as a child, in the middle)
"Take my heart"
First Communion, May 7, 1902
Blessed Maria Maravillas at age 10
Altar at La Aldehuela, (Madrid) Spain.
The Carmel of Jesus, Mary and Joseph in Valparaiso will have some similarities of the La Aldehuela.Monastery
La Adelhuela - Bl Madre Maravillas, Foundress of this Monastery and others as well