From Spain to South America

Ascensión Nicol was born in Tafalla, Navarre (Spain), on 14 March 1868. At baptism she was given the name of Florentina. Her early education was typical of Christian families of the time in that environment. She was the youngest of four children.

When she was 14 she entered Saint Rosa of Lima boarding school in the town of Huesca. This contact with Dominican religious life raised questions within her about her vocation. When she decided to become a religious, at the end of her studies, she preferred to return to her family for a year so as to be sure of her choice. She returned to the school in 1885 ready to begin the novitiate. A year later she made her first vows and started to work as a teacher, a job she did for 28 years. She shared with other Sisters a desire to serve the poorest, even those in the most distant places, news of whom reached them by means of the missionary magazines of the time.

The poor – criterion for choices

She was happy to be on mission, her option for the little ones filled her with abundant joy. A few days after their arrival in Maldonado they opened a school for girls. Not long afterwards, they put up buildings to receive the poorest girls and those from the most remote parts of the forests. The first girls from the Baraya tribe arrived, and they stayed with the Sisters and the boarding school was filled. Now the Sisters were on the spot, they deepened their reflection on the social situation of life in the forests: the clash between the indigenous people and the rubber plantation workers. The Sisters opted for the indigenous people and decided that in their school there was a place for anyone who wanted to come, but they gave preference to the indigenous people.