Lindalva Justo de Oliveira

Last updated

Lindalva Justo de Oliveira

DC
Virgin and martyr
Born(1953-10-20)20 October 1953
Sitio Malhada da Areia, Açu, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil
Died9 April 1993(1993-04-09) (aged 39)
Salvador, Bahia, Brazil
Venerated in Roman Catholic Church
Beatified 2 December 2007, Barradão Stadium, São Salvador de Bahia, Brazil by Cardinal José Saraiva Martins
Major shrine Capela das Relíquias da Beata Lindalva, Brazil
Feast 7 January

Lindalva Justo de Oliveira (20 October 1953 - 9 April 1993) was a Brazilian Roman Catholic and a member of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul. [1] Oliveira worked at, Dom Pedro II Home, a retirement home, where she was killed in 1993 after a man obsessed with her stabbed her 44 times when she refused his unwanted advances. [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Oliveira's beatification received the approval of Pope Benedict XVI who determined that she was killed in defensum castitatis (in defense of chastity). She was beatified on 2 December 2007 in which Cardinal José Saraiva Martins presided. [5] [6]

Life

Lindalva Justo de Oliveira was born on 20 October 1953 in Brazil as the sixth of thirteen children to the farmer João Justo da Fé - a widower with three children - and Maria Lúcia da Fé (b. 1923); two brothers were Antonio and Djamla. [5] As of 2014 her mother was still alive at age 91. [3] Antonio was an alcoholic and went sober not long after she penned a letter to him. [6]

Oliveira received her baptism on 7 January 1954 in the parish of Saint John the Baptist in the Chapel of Olho D'Água from Monsignor Júlio Alves Bezerra. [3] Around 1961 her parents took their children elsewhere so as to provide for their educational needs.

She received her First Communion on 15 December 1965 and as of 1971 began to help raise her three nephews. [2] Her parents tried to convince her to wed at this time but she deflected the conversation and instead said that he had three sons: her brother's three children that she helped care for. Oliveira lived with her brother Djamla in Natal for a time and received an administrative assistant's diploma in 1979. From 1978 until a decade later she worked in retail sales and also as a cashier at a petrol station. [5] This was to provide for her ailing father and her mother and after the death of her father was for her mother's financial situation; leftover wages were for her personal use and she lived in Natal during this time. [1]

As her father was on his deathbed in 1982 she aided him in his last months. He later summoned his children to him while asking a priest for the Anointing of the sick; he beseeched his children to persevere in the faith and devote themselves as best as possible to God. [2] He died hours later in 1982 due to abdominal cancer. [5] Not long after in 1982 she began a technical course in nursing. In 1986 she attended a vocational movement of the Vincentian Sisters and requested joining them at the end of 1987; the Archbishop of Natal Nivaldo Monte granted her the sacrament of Confirmation on 28 November 1987. [3]

On 28 December 1987 she received a letter from the mother provincial accepting her entrance into the congregation. Her time as a postulant commenced on 11 February 1988 in Recife, where she commenced her novitiate on 16 July 1989.

She began to work at the shelter titled Don Pedro II Home in Bahia on 29 January 1991 to aid older people and the poor; she went on a retreat that same month while the forum was dedicated to the charism of Saint Vincent de Paul. [1] [5] Oliveira even took a driving test so she could take some of the people from the shelter for rides. [6]

In 1993 a man named Augusto da Silva Peixoto (b. 1947) was admitted into the shelter despite the fact that he was not meant to be there at all; he became obsessed with Oliveira and began to harass her despite her best efforts to keep her distance from him while treating him like she did the others. [5] Those around her convinced her to report it and on 30 March 1993 the official of the shelter – Margarita Maria Siva de Azevedo – rebuked him; Augusto responded on 5 April in purchasing a machete.

On 9 April 1993 de Oliveira participated in the Way of the Cross and returned to the shelter to serve breakfast at the Dom Pedro II Home. [4] Augusto approached her as she served coffee and tapped her on the shoulder before thrusting a knife into her above the collar-bone as she turned around. [3] She sank to the ground and cried out several times: "God protect me" while her attacker shouted: "I should have done this sooner!" A man attempted to intervene but Augusto warned those who approached would be killed. Augusto wiped the knife of blood on his clothes and threw it onto the floor before exclaiming to the horrified witnesses: "She did not want me!" He then said to the doctor that was summoned: "You can call the police, I will not run away; I did what had to be done". [5] Augusto's reason for killing her was due to Oliveira refusing to give up the religious life to be with him as a lover. [1] The killer sat on a bench outside the shelter and awaited the police; he was admitted to a mental hospital following his conviction. Coroners identified a total of 44 perforations in Oliveira.

Her funeral was celebrated on 10 April 1993 and the Dominican Cardinal Lucas Moreira Neves presided over the funeral. [5] As of 6 April 2014 her remains are in the Capela das Relíquias da Beata Lindalva. [6]

Beatification

Tomb in 2015 in the chapel established in her honor. Capela das Reliquias da Beata Lindalva.jpg
Tomb in 2015 in the chapel established in her honor.

The beatification process commenced in Brazil on 19 October 1999 under Pope John Paul II after the Congregation for the Causes of Saints declared "nihil obstat" ('nothing against') to the cause while also acknowledging her as a Servant of God. The diocesan process opened on 17 January 2000 and concluded its business not long after on 3 March 2001; the C.C.S. validated this process in Rome on 22 June 2001.

The Positio was sent to the C.C.S. in 2002 at which point it was retained until theologians met and approved the cause in a meeting on 26 September 2006; the C.C.S. also granted their approval to the merits of the cause on 21 November 2006. On 16 December 2006 her beatification received the papal approval of Pope Benedict XVI. The celebration was held in Brazil on 2 December 2007 and Cardinal José Saraiva Martins presided as the delegate the pontiff appointed in his stead.

Related Research Articles

Mariano de la Mata Aparício was a Spanish Roman Catholic priest and a professed member of the Order of Saint Augustine. He joined the missions in Brazil where he served until his death and was known for his educational work with the poor. His age and diminishing health was no obstacle for him throughout his time in Brazil and it did not hinder his efforts to visit the sick or go out to be with the people he looked after.

Albertina Berkenbrock was a Brazilian Catholic girl killed "in defensum castitatis" in 1931 after she resisted her attacker's rape attempts. Berkenbrock was of German descent both sides and she worked on her farm while also teaching fellow children catechism and attending Mass on a frequent basis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maria Merkert</span>

Maria Luise Merkert was a German Roman Catholic professed religious and the co-foundress of the Sisters of Saint Elizabeth. Merkert worked to help those in need including the poor and ill and tended to them with her older sister until her sudden death and the death of her other companions - this left Merkert alone to found and maintain her order as its first Superior General from 1859 until her death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nhá Chica</span>

Francisca de Paula de Jesus, also known as Nhá Chica, was an Afro-Brazilian Catholic laywoman and popular religious figure known for her humble life and her dedication to God.

Adílio Daronch was a Brazilian Roman Catholic adolescent. Daronch was born to immigrants and lived his entire life in Brazil where he was known to have had a love for football and riding. He became a dedicated altar server following the reception of his First Communion and often accompanied the priest Manuel Gómez González on his long missions of evangelization. The pair were murdered in 1924 on one such mission after revolutionaries became outraged with Manuel's active apostolate in their area.

Giuseppina Gabriela Bonino, also known by her religious name Giuseppina Gabriella of Jesus, was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Suore della Sacra Famiglia di Savigliano. Bonino dedicated her life to the ill and to orphans and did this in drawing upon her own experience in tending to her ailing father and to orphans in her hometown - all this prior to and after the establishment of her religious congregation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">María Pilar López de Maturana Ortiz de Zárate</span>

Blessed María Pilar López de Maturana Ortiz de Zárate, also known by her religious name Margarita María, was a Spanish Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Mercedarian Missionaries of Bérriz. The religious made several international trips in order to serve in the missions as her order often dabbled in and undertook these trips despite a serious ulcer that transcended into stomach cancer but nevertheless she continued to promote the charism of the missions.

Blessed Bruna Pellesi, known as Maria Rosa of Jesus, was an Italian nun who was a member of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Christ. Pellesi served as an educator in places such as Sassuolo until she contracted tuberculosis and was moved to various sanatoriums for recuperation until the end of her life when she died in her convent.

Giuseppina Nicoli was an Italian Roman Catholic religious sister. Nicoli - aged 20 at the time - became a member of the Vincentians and became a catechist in Sardinia where she was positioned for most of her life despite holding several positions of leadership in Turin and elsewhere for a brief period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carmen Salles y Barangueras</span>

María del Carmen Sallés y Barangueras, also known by her religious name Carmen of Jesus, was a Spanish Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception. Sallés is best known for being a strong advocate of both genders being equal and a staunch defender of the rights of women, since she made this the focus of her life from the beginning of her entrance into the religious life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Assunta Marchetti</span>

Assunta Marchetti was an Italian Roman Catholic religious sister and the co-founder of the Missionary Sisters of Saint Charles Borromeo Scalabrinians; she worked in Brazil from 1895 until her death. She has been beatified as a Blessed Mother. Her priest brother Giuseppe is titled as Venerable on the path to sainthood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giuditta Vannini</span> Italian Roman Catholic nun

Giuditta Vannini – also known as Giuseppina – was an Italian Roman Catholic nun who became a Camillian. Together with Luigi Tezza she established the religious congregation known as the Daughters of Saint Camillus. She and her two siblings were orphaned as children and were placed in different homes; she was raised and educated in Rome under nuns where her vocation to the religious life was strengthened. Vannini later tried joining a religious order but was forced to leave during her novitiate period after suffering from ill health. She and Tezza met in 1891 and founded a religious congregation of which Vannini served as Superior General until her death while Tezza was exiled to Peru around 1900.

Maria Anna Donati was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious who had established the Calasanzian Sisters in Florence with the aid of Celestino Zini. Upon her profession as a religious she assumed the new name of "Celestina of the Mother of God" in honor of Zini.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luigi Monza</span>

Blessed Luigi Monza was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and the founder of the Secular Institute of the Little Apostles of Charity. Monza's pastoral mission was defined with catering to the needs of the poor and the sick and used his new congregation as a means of spreading this mission.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enrichetta Alfieri</span>

Enrichetta Alfieri, born Maria Angela Domenica Alfieri, was an Italian Roman Catholic religious sister and a member of the Sisters of Divine Charity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manuela de Jesús Arias Espinosa</span>

Manuela de Jesús Arias Espinosa, also known by her religious name María Inés Teresa of the Blessed Sacrament, was a Mexican Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of both the Poor Clare Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament (1945) and the Missionaries of Christ for the Universal Church (1979). She lived during the time of the Cristero War and remained out of the nation during some of it in order to avoid the anti-religious persecution of the times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maria Clara of the Child Jesus</span>

Maria Clara of the Child Jesus — born Libânia do Carmo Galvão Mexia de Moura Telles de Albuquerque was a Portuguese Roman Catholic professed religious who established the Franciscan Hospitaller Sisters of the Immaculate Conception in Lisbon. She led the congregation as its superior.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darío Acosta Zurita</span>

Darío Acosta Zurita was a Mexican Roman Catholic priest who administered in Veracruz where he lived and was killed. Zurita commenced his studies for the priesthood after he had once been refused entrance and he became known as an athletic seminarian. Bishop Rafael Guízar Valencia ordained him in 1931 and he was killed three months later after armed gunmen stormed the cathedral – enacting the so-called Tejeda Law – and shot him dead.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">María del Carmen González-Ramos García-Prieto de Muñoz</span>

María del Carmen González-Ramos García-Prieto de Muñoz, also known by her religious name María del Carmen of the Child Jesus, was a Spanish Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Hearts. She married in mid-1857 – against her parents' advice – to a brash and dissolute husband and secured his repentance not too long before his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martyrs of Natal</span> 17th-century Catholic martyrs

The Martyrs of Natal were a group of 30 Roman Catholic people of Colonial Brazil – two of them priests – killed in the northern part of the colony in massacres that a large group of Dutch Calvinists led. One priest was a Colonial Brazilian Jesuit missionary, while the other priest was an evangelizer himself. The others were all lay Catholics, most of them anonymous members of the Church, some of them children.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Blessed Lindalwa Justo de Oliveira". Saints SQPN. 24 June 2016. Retrieved 25 June 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 "Venerable Sister Lindalva Justo de Oliveira" . Retrieved 25 June 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Blessed Lindalva Justo de Oliveira". Santi e Beati. Retrieved 25 June 2016.
  4. 1 2 "Missa em memória à Beata Lindalva Justo de Oliveira será celebrada no dia 7 de janeiro" (in Portuguese). Arquidiocese de São Salvador Bahia. 2018-12-29. Retrieved 2021-07-12.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Bl. Lindalva Justo de Oliveira (1953-1993)". Holy See. Retrieved 25 June 2016.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "Biographies of New Blesseds - 2007". EWTN. 2007. Retrieved 25 June 2016.