Martha de San Bernardo, P.C.C., was a 17th-century Colettine Poor Clare who was first Filipino woman to become a Roman Catholic nun; she served on Macao. [1] The cause for her canonization has been submitted.
While her birth name is lost, it is recorded that she was a ladina (a Spanish-speaking native of the Philippines who had no Spanish ancestry) who belonged to an affluent and influential family from Pampanga on the island of Luzon, then part of the Spanish East Indies. [2] Inspired by the lives of the Colettine Clares who had arrived from Spain in 1621 under the leadership of Mother Jerónima de la Asunción, P.C.C., and established the Royal Monastery of Santa Clara in Intramuros, she wished to become a nun herself. In this, she was able to secure the support of the monastic community. Due, however, to the colonial regulations of the Spanish Empire which ruled the islands and the existing racial prejudices of the period, she was barred from admission. [3]
Instead, in 1633, with the assistance of the Minister General of the Franciscans, she was sent to a newly opened monastery in the Portuguese colony of Macau. Together with several Spanish postulants, she was formally received into the Colettine Order on board a ship sailing the South China Sea, at which time she was given the religious name by which she is now known. [4] [5]
The precise details of Mother De San Bernardo's death are unrecorded. The Colettines officially give the years 1639-40, saying that she died in Macau while on mission. [2]
The cause for Martha de San Bernardo's canonization has been put forward, but it is still awaiting approval by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints of the Holy See.
Margaret Anne Sinclair, PCC, religious name Mary Francis of the Five Wounds, was a Scottish Catholic nun of the Colettine Poor Clares. She was declared venerable by Pope Paul VI on 6 February 1978.
Lorenzo Ruiz, also called Saint Lorenzo of Manila, is a Filipino saint venerated in the Catholic Church. A Chinese Filipino, he became his country's protomartyr after his execution in Japan by the Tokugawa Shogunate during its persecution of Japanese Christians in the 17th century.
The Poor Clares, officially the Order of Saint Clare, originally referred to as the Order of Poor Ladies, and also known as the Clarisses or Clarissines, the Minoresses, the Franciscan Clarist Order, and the Second Order of Saint Francis, are members of a contemplative Order of nuns in the Catholic Church. The Poor Clares were the second Franciscan branch of the order to be established. Founded by Clare of Assisi and Francis of Assisi on Palm Sunday in the year 1212, they were organized after the Order of Friars Minor, and before the Third Order of Saint Francis for the laity. As of 2011, there were over 20,000 Poor Clare nuns in over 75 countries throughout the world. They follow several different observances and are organized into federations.
The Congregation of the Religious of the Virgin Mary (Spanish: Religiosas de la Beata Virgen María, abbreviated RVM, is a Roman Catholic centralized religious institute of consecrated life of Pontifical Right for women founded in Manila in 1684 by the Filipina Venerable Mother Ignacia del Espíritu Santo.
Ignacia del Espíritu Santo luco, also known as "Mother Ignacia" was a Filipino religious sister of the Catholic Church. She was known for her acts of piety and religious poverty and founded the Congregation of the Sisters of the Religious of the Virgin Mary, the first native Filipino female congregation with approved pontifical status in what is now the Republic of the Philippines.
The Order of the Immaculate Conception, abbreviated OIC and also known as the Conceptionists, is a Catholic religious order of Pontifical Right for women. For some years, they followed the Poor Clares Rule, but in 1511 they were recognized as a separate religious order, taking a new rule and the name of Order of the Immaculate Conception.
Colette of Corbie, PCC was a French abbess and the foundress of the Colettine Poor Clares, a reform branch of the Order of Saint Clare, better known as the Poor Clares. She is honored as a saint in the Catholic Church. Due to a number of miraculous events claimed during her life, she is venerated as a patron saint of women seeking to conceive, expectant mothers, and sick children.
Beatrice of Silva, born Beatriz de Menezes da Silva, was a Portuguese noblewoman who became the foundress of the monastic Order of the Immaculate Conception. Amadeus of Portugal's younger sister, she is honored as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.
Jerónima de la Asunción, O.S.C. was a Spanish Catholic nun and abbess who founded the Real Monasterio de Santa Clara in Intramuros, Manila, Philippines.
Francisca del Espíritu Santo de Fuentes is a Spanish Roman Catholic religious figure. She was the first Prioress of the Dominican Sisters of Saint Catherine of Siena in the Philippines.
María Beatriz del Rosario Arroyo y Pidal, religious name María Rosario of the Visitation, was a Filipino nun and the founder of the Dominican Sisters of the Most Holy Rosary of the Philippines.
Clare of Assisi was an Italian saint and one of the first followers of Francis of Assisi. She founded the Order of Poor Ladies, a monastic religious order for women in the Franciscan tradition, and wrote their Rule of Life, the first set of monastic guidelines known to have been written by a woman. Following her death, the order she founded was renamed in her honour as the Order of Saint Clare, commonly referred to today as the Poor Clares. Her feast day is on 11 August.
Mary Magdalen Bentivoglio was an Italian nun of the Order of St. Clare of the Primitive Observance. She was sent to the United States to found the first monastery of the order in the country and eventually established three monastic communities there before her death. The cause for her possible canonization is now being studied by the Holy See, by which she has been granted the religious title of Servant of God.
The Chapel of San Lorenzo Ruiz was a Roman Catholic chapel in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, located at 378 Broome Street between Mulberry and Mott Streets in the Nolita neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The chapel was established in 2005. The building was originally constructed for the Church of the Most Holy Crucifix in 1925–26, and was designed by Robert J. Reiley.
The Colettine Poor Clares are a reform branch of the Order of St. Clare, founded by Clare of Assisi in Italy in 1211. They follow the interpretation of the Rule of St. Clare established by Saint Colette in 1410, originally a French hermit and member of the Third Order of St. Francis.
Émilie de Villeneuve was a French Catholic nun and the founder of the Sisters of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception of Castres.
María Josefa Sancho de Guerra was a Spanish Roman Catholic nun who established her own congregation known as the Servants of Jesus of Charity. She wanted her new congregation to focus on the care of the sick and the poor. She assumed the religious name of "María Josefa of the Heart of Jesus".
The Nun Jerónima de la Fuente is a full-length portrait painting by Diego Velázquez depicting the titular nun. Velázquez painted Jerónima, which is in oil on canvas, in 1620. It is now on display at the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain.