Venerable Madre Jeronima de la Asuncion - The Pioneer of Women's Religious Life in the Philippines

Venerable Madre Jeronima de la Asuncion
Foundress of the Real Monasterio de Santa Clara
The First Monastery for Women in the Philippines

In the busy area of Katipunan Avenue in Quezon City where a famed Jesuit University is located, there was a certain monastery that is flocked by pilgrims, most especially by students, who would bring trays of eggs and other offerings that will be given to the cloistered nuns who reside in that monastery - the famed Monasterio de Santa Clara.

The famed Monasterio was actually the first Monastery for Women Religious in the Philippines founded by a strong willed holy woman - Venerable Madre Jeronima de la Asuncion of the Franciscan Poor Clare Sisters who gained much fame for her sanctity and strong will that several women followed her footsteps and established the now famous Monastery.

Her Early Life

Jerónima was born Jeronima Garcia dela Fuente in Toledo, Spain to Pedro García e Yánez and Catalina de la Fuente, pious natives of Toledo who were both of noble lineage on May 5, 1599. Jerónima spent her childhood in Toledo, where she learned the basics of Christian life very early on. At the age of fourteen, she met the great Carmelite reformer, Saint Teresa of Ávila, of the then newly founded Order of the Discalced Carmelites, after which she felt the calling to monastic life. She was also influenced by a biography of Saint Clare of Assisi.

On August 15, 1570, Jerónima entered the Colettine (a Reformed Order of the Franciscan Poor Clare nuns reformed by St. Colette) monastery of Santa Isabel la Real de Toledo. At this monastery, she joined two of her aunts who were already professed nuns in the community. She later occasionally functioned as Mistress of Novices.

A statue of Ven. Mo. Jeronima in
Bolinao, Pangasinan

Her Mission in the Philippines

Jerónima learned about the intention of her Order to establish a monastery in Manila and volunteered to be among this pioneering community. On October 21, 1619, she received the notice that her offer had been accepted and was appointed as foundress and first abbess of the Philippine monastery. This monastery would be the first of its kind, both to be established in Manila and in Asia as well.

Her journey began in April 1620, with the initial group of six nuns; she was already 66 years old at that time. From Toledo, they traveled by river to Seville where they were joined by two more nuns, and then went on to Cádiz, from where they set sail across the Atlantic Ocean. By late September 1620, the nuns reached Mexico City in New Spain and stayed there for about six months at a monastery of the Order and where two more nuns from that community joined the group.

On Ash Wednesday of 1621, Mother Jeronima and her group left Mexico by road to cross the mountains towards Acapulco and set foot in the Philippines in the port of Bolinao on July 24, 1621. They later reached Intramuros on August 5, 1621, one year, three months and nine days after leaving Toledo.

The Old  Monasterio de Santa Clara in Intramuros
before its destruction during World War 2

The Monasterio and her life in Manila

Madre Jeronima arrived in Manila in 1620 with eight companions and was received with great fanfare. In 1625, she founded the Royal Monastery of the Immaculate Conception of the Barefoot Nuns of St. Claire, or more popularly known as the Monasterio de Santa Clara. In June 16, 1662, the monastery received Royal protection from the Spanish Crown and since then the title “Real” was appended to the monastery’s name up to the present.

Madre Jeronima de la Asuncion in ecstasy
while adoring the Blessed Sacramen

For years, her holy life became well known in Manila with her reputation  as a miracle worker and visionary attracted a few native Indias who sought to enter the cloister as Clarissas; unfortunately, the monastery was open only to women of Spanish blood. It was one of Madre Jeronima’s frustrations that, despite her noble lineage, highly placed friends, and her reputation as a “living saint,” church authorities refused to approve her wish to accept indias in the monastery. To get around this problem, she planned a convent for native women in somewhere in Manila which was later founded years later by Filipinas from Ignacia del Espiritu Santo with the Religious of the Virgin Mary, Francisca del Espiritu Santo with the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena and the Talangpaz Sisters with the Augustinian Recollects Nuns.

The old Monasterio in Intramuros was destroyed during the Second World War and they relocated first in Cubao, Quezon City in 1950 and once again to its present site in Katipunan, Quezon City years later. The Monasterio became iconic because of the "shrouded mystery" that the general public perceives about the monastery and it was immortalized in Jose Rizal's "Noli Me Tangere" when one of the protagonists of the novel, Maria Clara delos Santos entered the Monasterio instead of marrying Alfonso Linares de Espadaña for she wanted to be with Crisostomo Ibarra, whom she believed was dead while being chased by the Guardia Civil with Elias who later resurfaced as Simoun in "El Filibusterismo" and she died in the cloister years later.

The Monasterio de Santa Clara at its present location in Katipunan,
Quezon City where her mortal remains lies in a private chapel.

Her Passing 

During the last thirty years of her life, Mother Jerónima lived in constant illness. In early September 1630, her health deteriorated. She died at dawn on October 22, 1630 at the age of 75. Mother Jerónima's remains were first buried in a niche within a wall inside the monastery, but her remains were later relocated five times.

The first was in 1670 to hinder the activities of local devotees, while the second happened in 1712 due to the reconstruction work on the monastery, when the remains were placed in the lower choir. The third relocation was during the British occupation of Manila in 1763, when the coffin containing her remains was transferred to the Church of Saint Francis in Intramuros. The remains were brought back to the monastery in 1765, and later survived the aerial bombing of the city during the Second World War. In the 1950s, her bones were finally placed at the monastery's new site in Katipunan, Quezon City.

The portrait of Ven. Mo. Jeronima by the famed
Diego Velasquez

The famed portrait

Modern-day photographs and images of Madre Jerónima de la Asunción are replicas of the depiction by the renowned court painter, Diego Velázquez. The portrait was composed during Mother Jerónima's stopover in Seville en route to the Philippines.

The painting is described as conveying the then-sixty-six-year-old nun's "devoutness and strength of character through her stern expression and rugged countenance; her direct, outward gaze at the beholder; and her expressive accoutrements". Mother Jerónima is depicted wearing her religious habit while holding a book and a crucifix.

The inscriptions on top of the painting read "It is good to await the salvation of God in silence" while a banner that flows from her mouth reads "I shall be satisfied as long as He is glorified". The actual portrait is located in a Museum in Spain while a copy of the portrait is venerated in her Monasterio in its new location in Katipunan, Quezon City.

A replica of Diego Valsquez portriat of Madre Jeronima
with the tombstone

The Beatification and Canonization process

Although not born in the Philippines, Mother Jerónima became a religious inspiration for many Catholic devotees. She was described as a woman of resolute character in managing political and religious conflicts both within and outside the confines of her monastery. She also became an inspiration to Filipinas to live a holy life that some of the women, like the ones mentioned earlier founded their own congregations that accepts Indias.

Steps towards her canonization begun in 1630. However, despite the miracles that were attributed to her, most notably, the healing of the mother of the Talangpaz sisters when a relic of hers was kept beside her sickbed and she was immediately cured, the process is still have not proceeded nor any progress was reported to up to the present. The nuns, for years, along with her devotees are still gathering testimonies for her beatification and hoping that it will proceed in the future.

Before we close this entry about the famed foundress, here is a prayer for to help for the cause of her beatification and canonization of Madre Jeronima.

Prayer of the Beatification of Venerable Mother Jeronima de la Asuncion

O Most Blessed Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Who has chosen thy Servant Jeronima de la Asuncion to be the Foundress of the first monastery dedicated to the contemplative life in the Philippines, and to become the Leader of a great army of virgins dedicated to prayer and penance according to the seraphic spirit of St. Clare, if it is for thy greater glory, deign to raise her to the honor of the altars granting us the graces we ask through her intercession, if they are conformable to thy Will and conducive to our spiritual welfare. Amen.

Persons who obtain favors through the intercession of the Mother Jeronima de la Asuncion are kindly requested to make them known to

Monasterio de Sta. Clara
1040 C-5 Katipunan Road, Loyola Heights Quezon City