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On the advice of her confessor, Matilda writes down the feelings of her heart. This is how his beautiful thoughts have been preserved:
My master, Jesus the lover! The world is full of needs. Everyone has a heart. I'm going for the ones I can. I'll bring them to you.
"I have seen innocent creatures who in their bad luck found ignorance, a prelude to misfortunes, I will teach them as soon as I can"
I go for the sick who, in the midst of their pains, will more easily heed my prayers to be loved!
Mary accompanies me at all times and never ceases to remind me of a tabernacle
It's all Sacrament in my path
For You, for You, and for Your glory will be my occupation forever.
ROBLEDILLO DE LA VERA: House-Museum, Parish Church
BÉJAR: Foundational House, Church of Santa María, Church of San Juan
DON BENITO: House where M Matilde died, Chapel of the school where the remains of the Blessed are kept, Hospital de San Antonio
MADRID: Mother Matilde Museum
The Eucharist is the original source of Mother Matilda's Charism, Spirituality and Evangelizing Mission in the Church.
"That's how the thinking went. No thought was given to what we were to live on, what our deeds or pretensions were; but to love God in retreat and prayer, keeping him company for the forgetfulness he suffers in the Tabernacle; doing what good we could to souls and to the sick, the ignorant, and the helpless orphans." EE 298
"We, my Jesus, your Lovers, will accompany you for all; your Lovers always with you, whether in your prostrate plants, whether in the person of the poor sick, or of the innocent infant or of the ignorant youth, of all who knock at our doors will be helped with your help and for your service."
"To love and teach to love the Blessed Sacrament God as far as our ambition reaches, following in the footsteps of Mary"
Mary Immaculate is the teacher who educates her, the formator of her heart, her model, her companion in prayer, duties and apostolate. She inspired the title for the Congregation.
The axis of Mother Matilda's life and mission is the Eucharist, and her spirituality is characterized by:
• Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament: "Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, delight of life on earth and hope of eternal happiness" EE219
• Service to the brethren: Feeling called to a specific mission: service to the brethren.
• Mary in her life: Mary is Matilda's companion, mother and teacher.
• Joy: Joy, inner joy, and peace as peculiar characteristics.
FATHER OF LOVE AND MERCY,
that you infused into Blessed Mother Matilda
the ideal of a Eucharistic love
and ardent charity for one's neighbour,
especially with the sick and needy children;
We beseech you, Lord, to help us to grow in charity in imitation of him
and deign to grant us his speedy canonization.
for your greater glory and our good. Amen
She was born in Robledillo de la Vera, Cáceres, to a middle-class family with strong Christian roots on May 30, 1841, Pentecost Sunday, and was baptized the next day with the name Matilde. She was the second of four children born to Felix, a notary, and his wife Basel.
In 1844 the family moved to Villavieja de Yeltes (Salamanca) and in 1851 they settled permanently in Béjar.
In this city Matilde grew up and was formed; He acquired a basic general culture by attending a private school and received a solid Christian education mainly in his own home, where the precepts of the Lord were carefully observed, prayers were made daily, and servants were treated as children. Matilda, guided by her mother, began to love the Lord from an early age and to exercise herself in the practice of prayer and virtue, with filial devotion to the Virgin and great compassion for the poor and sinners.
In 1864 a Jesuit, Fr. Pedro Cenzano, founded the congregation of the Daughters of Mary for the young women of Béjar, and Matilde was elected president, carrying out for eleven years a very fruitful work among the young associates. She fostered a life of piety and the Christian and human formation of young women and contributed to the rapprochement of the social classes, so distant at the time.
Impelled by the desire to win hearts for Jesus, she also embarked on an intense apostolic action with girls, the sick, the poor... in catechesis, Sunday schools, classes for needy girls, visits to the poor and sick. The St. Vincent de Paul Conferences appointed her a nurse researcher.
It was March 19, 1875, the Solemnity of St. Joseph; They had gathered at the Parish of St. Mary to attend the Eucharistic celebration and from there they would go to a rented house and there they would begin their religious life. But at the appointed time, of the seven young women engaged, only one showed up, María Briz. In the face of such a strong trial, Matilda did not give in; strengthened by the Eucharist, she said: "Do not be cowed! Forward, forward!" and with a determined step he went with Maria Briz to the house he called "little house of Nazareth."
There, accompanied only by an image of the Virgin, they began their new life, in absolute poverty, in recollection and prayer, trying to imitate the Holy Family in the home of Nazareth. Until Matilda saw clearly that it was God's will that she resume apostolic activities. Soon they opened a daily school and a Sunday school; They took orphan girls into their home and hurried to the bedside of the sick as soon as they were called. They lived on alms, trusting in Divine Providence, which never failed them.
On March 19, 1884, the diocesan Bishop, D. Pedro Casas y Souto, approved the first Rules and this new religious institute was canonically constituted as a diocesan right.
Mother Matilda's heart was warming more and more with love, but her health was very weakened by the incessant work, the many sacrifices, the hard trials she had to go through. On December 15, 1902, she was seized with a severe attack of apoplexy, as a result of which, two days later, on the 17th, surrounded by her daughters, she died in sweet peace. All of Don Benito's people mourned her like a mother and flocked to her funeral.
On October 19, 1923, her mortal remains were transferred from the cemetery of Don Benito to the church of the Sacred Heart College in that city, where Mother lived and died and where they are currently in a mausoleum. The people came to the event proclaiming the great virtues of the Mother.
She was beatified in Rome by St. John Paul II in St. Peter's Square on March 21, 2004. Religious, parents, teachers and students from Spain, Portugal, Italy and Latin America attended the event with great fervor and participated in the events organized: Feast of the Eve, Mass of Beatification in St. Peter's Square, Eucharist of thanksgiving in St. Peter's Basilica and a meal of fraternity
On the advice of her confessor, Matilda writes down the feelings of her heart. This is how his beautiful thoughts have been preserved:
My master, Jesus the lover! The world is full of needs. Everyone has a heart. I'm going for the ones I can. I'll bring them to you.
"I have seen innocent creatures who in their bad luck found ignorance, a prelude to misfortunes, I will teach them as soon as I can"
I go for the sick who, in the midst of their pains, will more easily heed my prayers to be loved!
Mary accompanies me at all times and never ceases to remind me of a tabernacle
It's all Sacrament in my path
For You, for You, and for Your glory will be my occupation forever.
ROBLEDILLO DE LA VERA: House-Museum, Parish Church
BÉJAR: Foundational House, Church of Santa María, Church of San Juan
DON BENITO: House where M Matilde died, Chapel of the school where the remains of the Blessed are kept, Hospital de San Antonio
MADRID: Mother Matilde Museum
The Eucharist is the original source of Mother Matilda's Charism, Spirituality and Evangelizing Mission in the Church.
"That's how the thinking went. No thought was given to what we were to live on, what our deeds or pretensions were; but to love God in retreat and prayer, keeping him company for the forgetfulness he suffers in the Tabernacle; doing what good we could to souls and to the sick, the ignorant, and the helpless orphans." EE 298
"We, my Jesus, your Lovers, will accompany you for all; your Lovers always with you, whether in your prostrate plants, whether in the person of the poor sick, or of the innocent infant or of the ignorant youth, of all who knock at our doors will be helped with your help and for your service."
"To love and teach to love the Blessed Sacrament God as far as our ambition reaches, following in the footsteps of Mary"
Mary Immaculate is the teacher who educates her, the formator of her heart, her model, her companion in prayer, duties and apostolate. She inspired the title for the Congregation.
The axis of Mother Matilda's life and mission is the Eucharist, and her spirituality is characterized by:
• Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament: "Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, delight of life on earth and hope of eternal happiness" EE219
• Service to the brethren: Feeling called to a specific mission: service to the brethren.
• Mary in her life: Mary is Matilda's companion, mother and teacher.
• Joy: Joy, inner joy, and peace as peculiar characteristics.
FATHER OF LOVE AND MERCY,
that you infused into Blessed Mother Matilda
the ideal of a Eucharistic love
and ardent charity for one's neighbour,
especially with the sick and needy children;
We beseech you, Lord, to help us to grow in charity in imitation of him
and deign to grant us his speedy canonization.
for your greater glory and our good. Amen
