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Article Index

Life of Venerable Francisca del Espiritu Santo

V. Rev -Fr. Joaquin Fonseca, O.P. (1840) 
Reference: Fr. Joaquin Fonseca, O.P., Historia delos PP. Dominicos en las
Islas Filipinas. Madrid, 1871. Volume IV, pp. 134-138

 

In the same Assembly (Provincial Chapter) a report was made to the Province about the recent death of the venerable religious of Santa Catalina, Sor Francisca del Espiritu Santo, whose memoryw as honored prominently in these Acta, which rendered a tribute of admiration to her virtues. She was a native of this city says a chronicle, and she had embraced in her youth the state of matrimony, but this Christian maiden lived so retired, so recollected and so devout in her state that she seemed to be more a religious than a married woman. Never failing in the social manners and customs; ever amiable and equipped with the finest exquisite educ3tion, she knew how to hide neatly under her feminine adornings the ordinary instruments of mortification and penance and was able to comply with the obligations imposed by our holy religion I which she practiced fervently with Christian liberty.

Having lost her husband while she was still very young she refused constantly to marry again, preferring holy continence and a widow's chastity to the more legitimate satisfaction of a home. Since she did not have children nor a family to claim her attention she was more apt to consecrate herself in prayer and other exercises of a penitent life. Her quiet and solitary home looked like a monastery at all times. She spent her exterior life in visiting the sick in their bed of pain consoling and helping them, sharing among the poor the residues from her rentals. Her animation and her example inspired the other matrons of this Christian community and imitating her way of life, they also devoted themselves to pious exercises.

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