The “nuns of the violets” in Mexico
On “Peoples and Mission,” the journey among native women’s religious congregations in touch with spazio + spadoni
Mexico’s capital is the country’s largest city and one of the most populous in the world. In all that chaos, there is one place in Mexico City where women can pause.
It is the Espacio de desarrollo de la mujer AC of the “Misioneras catequistas de los Sagrados Corazones de Jesús y de María” (Missionary Catechists of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary) “to welcome, to protect, to care.” “We help battered women and victims of violence, offer them a place to eat, sleep, and receive psychological counseling, but above all we listen to them, talk to them, and pray together.”
Speaking is sister Angelica Valle Cabrera, 37 years old, 20 of them in the congregation. Her Italian is fluent: between 2022 and 2023, she trained for a year at the Misericordia in Rosolini (SR), as part of spazio + spadoni’s Project Hic Sum (the outcome of which was a store of religious and non-religious items to support works of mercy).
Three hours down the road in Puebla is the Catequesis Familiar Program, with more than 5,000 people involved.
“Making us a family among families is our identity. Evangelization and catechesis in families, our mission,” explains the religious who, with overwhelming joy, tells us about their activities with children and couples.
“We have too long a name, but we are also known as ‘violet sisters,’ because, on Feb. 7, 1920, during Mass, the violets next to the tabernacle representing the 7 catechists inexplicably fell into the chalice.”
Even today, the words of the Blessed Mother from Conchita Cabrera de Armida resonate: “Blessed are you who have been bathed in the Blood of Christ.”
The Congregation “Misioneras catequistas de los Sagrados Corazones de Jesús y de María”
Founded in Mexico on Oct. 7, 1918, this Congregation came into existence first through a question, “What do you do for other children?” The mother asked Sofía Garduño Nava, then a young schoolteacher. By others she meant those who were on the streets, without any education.
Thus, the future foundress with six girls began catechesis in the neighborhood of the “Parroquia de la Conchita.”
The spiritual accompaniment of Guillermo Tritschler and the miracle of the violets then did the rest.
Today, there are 16 communities throughout Mexico; they are also present in the United States, Equatorial Guinea and Spain.
(Loredana Brigante, Popoli e Missione, March 2025, p. 50)
Source
- Popoli e Missione