Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Bilbao (Agenzia Fides) - On Mission Sunday 22 October, in Bilbao, Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and Papal Envoy for the occasion, presided Mass for the Beatification of Sister Margarita María López de Maturana, who founded the Mercedarian Missionaries of Bérriz. Concelebrants included Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Monteiro de Castro, five Bishops of the Basque Provinces, Bishop Ricardo Blázquez of Bilbao, Spanish Bishops’ Conference president; Cardinal Carlos Amigo Vallejo Archbishop of Seville as well as Bishop Tomas Aguon Camacho of Chalan Kanoa (Marianne Islands). Present for the occasion about 2,000 Catholics from China, Philippines, Congo and Zambia.
In his homily Cardinal Saraiva Martins mentioned Mission Sunday and the universality of the Church and her missionary work. He said Blessed Sr. Margarita let herself be led by God and she changed an enclosed order of nuns into a missionary institute.
Margarita María López de Maturana y Ortiz de Zárate, born in 1884 in Bilbao is remembered as one of the greatest missionaries of the 20th century. In 1920 she organised the Mercedarian Missionary Youth association, the first of its kind in Spain. It was Mother Maturana who transformed the 16th century Mercedarian convent at Vera Cruz in Berriz into a Missionary Institute. She was educated by Mercedarian Sisters in Berriz, and in that community made her first vows at the age of 19. Her missionary vocation emerged after a meeting in 1919 with two missionaries from China and India who visited the convent in Berriz. From this convent the first group of missionaries departed on 19 September 1926 for Wuhu (China). There followed missions to Saipán, Marianne Islands, Ponapé, Caroline Islands and Tokyo. The path undertaken led to the transformation of the convent into a missionary institute on 23 May 1930. Sr. Margarita sailed twice around the world to accompany her sisters and visit them. She died on 23 July 1934, two days after her 50th birthday.
Today there are 90 Mercedarian Missionaries of Bérriz in the Basque province of Biscay and 500 more scattered in Taiwan, China, Japan, Micronesia, Philippines, United States, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Peru, Democratic Congo, Zambia, Italy and other parts of Spain. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 23/10/2006; righe 34, parole 469)
