Venerable Mo. Francisca del Espiritu Santo - The Holy Widow and Foundress

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Venerable Francisca del Espiritu Santo
rendered by Bro. Mervin Lomague, OP
During the high times of the Spanish regime where men were usually seen wearing their habits from different religious orders and there was a strong restriction of women and local inhabitants who wanted to be part of religious life, there were few women at that time stood from the status quo and founded their own congregations, which was unthinkable at the time.

These women were Venerable Madre Ignacia del Espiritu Santo and her Religious of the Virgin Mary, Servants of God Madre Cecilia and Dionisia Talangpaz with the Augustnian Recollect Sisters and this woman who was a widow and later one of their contemporaries, Venerable Francisca del Espiritu Santo of the Dominican Sisters of Saint Catherine of Siena.

The life of Madre Francisca is full of trials and hardships yet she endured it all as she did her best to answer the call of the Lord.

St. Francis of Assisi and St. Dominic de Guzman
appeared to Francisca Fuentes in response
to her prayer to enter religious life.
The Early Life as Francisca Fuentes

Francisca de Fuentes was born to a Spanish couple Don Simon de Fuentes and Doña Ana Maria del Castillo y Tamayo in Manila in 1647. Francisca grew up to be a fine lady; and she was given in marriage to a gentleman of the nobility. However, by the inscrutable design of God, her husband did not live long, leaving her a childless young widow.

Francisca then dedicated her time to prayer and social service helping many poor and sick in the city yet she began to desire to heed a call for religious life and she fervently prayed for the grace of discernment.  One night, she has a vision in which she saw St. Francis of Assisi and St. Dominic de Guzman. Both saints asked her to which Holy way of life she should follow. Without much hesitation, she prostrated herself before St. Dominic. Because of this, she chose to be a Dominican, being admitted as a tertiary in 1682. She chose the religious name “Francisca del Espiritu Santo”.

Venerable Francisca del Espiritu Santo

Heeding the Call 

With her blood-sisters Antonia de Jesus Esguerra and Maria Ana de Fuentes, along with Sebastiana Salcedo, she requested to be allowed to live together in a life of prayer and in the practice of virtue while continuing their social mission. With hesitation, their request was approved on 11 January 1688 in Rome.

However, when Fr. Juan de Santo Domingo, O.P., of Spain took over the position of Fr. Juan de Santa Maria who had favored the request, it was laid aside. Francisca brought the request before him once more and boldly said, "Father Prior, the beaterio will be established, and Your Reverence will see it."

Fr. Santo Domingo established the beaterio and it was formally inaugurated in 1696 on the feast of St. Anne. On this occasion, Mother Francisca was appointed the first prioress for life.

The Trials of the Beaterio 

In 1703, Manila Archbishop Don Diego Camacho wanted the beaterio under his jurisdiction. The beatas (sisters) were put under interdict, removed their habits and were brought into exile at the Santa Potenciana College that they called the beatas' "Babylonian Exile." Francisca suffered the most under these trials, but with courage, she and the other sisters lived their religious life.

Since part of the opposition against the Baeterio was a question of finances, very valuable help came from a lay Dominican Tertiary, Don Juan de Escaño y Cordova, who in 1704 assured the Beatas an annual subsidy through the Dominican Province of the Holy Rosary of two thousands pesos – a considerable sum in those days.

The old Colegio de Santa Catalina in Intramuros before it was
destroyed during the Second World War
The Triumph

The time of triumph came in 1709, Archbishop Camacho became sympathetic to the beatas and they returned to take on their Dominican habits once more. With her in her return were 15 Spanish sisters - novices, lay sisters, and a girl who eventually donned the habit. The beaterio turned into Colegio de Sta. Catalina in 1706, a convent for women and a center of learning with emphasis on religion , the values of  Filipino womanhood and academic preparation for higher learning.  The girls were taught the principles of the Catholic faith and good Christian living  in addition to the training given on artistic and domestic arts. This Colegio will be later to be known as Siena College.

In the absence of a chapel for the Blesed Sacrament, she requested the fathers of San Juan de Letran College to build a corridor connecting the beaterio to the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament in the Church of Letran. The beaterio became the Beaterio de Sta. Cataline de Sena which is now the the Congregation of Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena.

Commemorative Stamp issued by the Philippine Post Office
in celebration of the 300th death anniversary of
Venerable Mo. Francisca del Espiritu Santo
Her later Years

The major trials having passed, Mother Francisca continued with even greater ardor her pursuit of spiritual perfection for herself and for spiritual daughters. Like the brave and strong woman that she was she governed the Beaterio with great prudence and fidelity to the Rule, amking the Eucharist the sublime center of the community’s spiritual life.

Worn out physically by her perpetual acts of mortification, and her continual struggle to secure the solid establishment of the Beaterio, she became ill and was suffering with heroic resignation and humility for several months, edifying everyone with her extraordinary spiritual life.

Mother Francisca died a peaceful death on August 24, 1711 on the Feast of St. Bartholomew the Apostle, leaving behind her beloved Beaterio and the Beatas - the living witness to her love of God and neighbor. She was buried at the gospel side of the chapel of Colegio de San Juan de Letran which was later bombed during the Liberation of Manila during the last years of the Second World War.

The Cause of Beatification and Canonization
A monument of  Venerable Mo. Francisca
del Espiritu Santo located in front of
Colegio de San Juan de Letran in
Intramuros, Manila
Almost three centuries later. the Congregation that reveres her as Mother, on the occasion of celebrating the 3rd centenary of the Foundation in 1996 felt inspired to deepen its knowledge and veneration of the life and charism of Francisca, the sisters felt the desire to promote her Cause for Beatification.

On December 20, 2002, His Eminence Jaime L. Cardinal Sin, Archbishop of Manila, sent a letter to His Eminence Jose Cardinal Saraiva Martins to recommend the formal introduction of the Cause for Canonization of Mother Francisca. On March 11, 2003, The Prefect of the Congregation of the Causes of Saints, Joseph Cardinal Saraiva Martins granted the NIHIL OBSTAT of the Causes of Beatification and Canonization of the Servant of God Francisca del Espiritu Santo de Fuentes.

On March 11, 2003, She was elevated to be a Servant of God after giving upon the go-signal “Nulla osta” with protocol number: 2533. On July 20, 2017, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines issued a circular for the formal promotion and support of the cause of Madre Francisca del Espiritu Santo and the Positio for the cause is scheduled is proposed to the study by the Theological Consultors of the Dicastery within the first half of 2018 as stated by Angelo Cardinal Amato, the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in his letter to the Prioress General of the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena.

On July 5, 2019, Pope Francis has approved and signed the Decree of Heroic Virtues of Servant of God Mother Francisca del Espiritu Santo declaring her Venerable.

Venerable Francisca del Espiritu Santo
The life of Madre Francisca was one of resilience from life's struggles and determination to heed God's call and submission to His divine Will.  Let us all hope and pray that the Cause for her Beatification and Canonization will be hasten so that we have a Holy Woman who played a role in our Church history to strive for the sanctity of religious life.

Prayer for the Cause of Venerable Mo. Francisca del Espiritu Santo

God, Father Almighty, in your infinite wisdom, Your have willed that Your Servant Francisca del Espiritu Santo de Fuentes be the Foundress of a Filipina Religious Congregation. An Instrument of your ineffable holiness, Francisca del Espiritu Santo de Fuentes touched so many lived and continues to edify our Filipino people. Let her beatification and Canonization be yet another outpouring of Your love to Your chosen people in the Far East and an added blessing to the Universal Chruch. In the Power of the Holy Spirit, who filled the heart of Francisca del Espiritu Santo de Fuentes, We lay down all our petitions before you (mention them) so that at the end, we can all sing: "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit." Amen.

 Pray one Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory be

References:

CBCP Circular on the Causes of Beatification and Canonization of Mother Francisca del Espiritu Santo (2017), Retrieved from http://www.cbcplaiko.org/2017/08/06/cbcp-circular-on-the-causes-of-beatification-and-canonization-of-mother-francisca-del-espiritu-santo/.
History of the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena Congregation, Retrieved from http://nd-scgsc.edu.ph/ndscgsc/pages/about.html.
Human Development Sector. Sulong Pilipina! Sulong Pilipinas! A Compilation of Filipino Women Centennial Awardees. (1999) National Centennial Commission -Women's Sector. Taft Avenue, Manila.
In service of the Truth: Francisca de Fuentes (2007), Retrieved from http://www.oocities.org/siena_qc/mof.htm.

Digital art:

Lomague, Mervin, OP

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