聖嘉雯
聖嘉雯1848年生於西班牙，在巴塞隆納（Barcelona）生活，自幼由父母和學校得到良好的信仰培育。
在一次她到蒙塞拉特山（Montserrat）朝聖後，感受到天主的召叫，矢志修道。
她進入修會，並特別為有需要的婦女服務，當她在學校任教期間，也特別關注失學或有困難的學生；可惜，因此而受排擠。
她祈禱和關注社會需要，尋求天主在她身上的旨意。終於，她聯同一批志同道合的修女，在1892年得主教批准，成立了「聖母無原罪傳教女修會」，並開辦學校，為貧童服務，命名為「無原罪聖母之家」。聖嘉雯於1911年7月25日安逝。
其後，她的修會和服務也遍及巴西等地。她在1998年由教宗聖若望保祿二世宣福，2012年由教宗本篤十六世宣聖。
祈禱
全能永生的天主，你恩賜聖嘉雯尋求你的旨意，為貧苦學生服務，求你藉聖嘉雯的榜樣和轉禱，幫助我們分辦時代的需要，在弱小者身上，為你服務。因你的聖子、我們的主耶穌基督，他和你及聖神，是唯一天主，永生永王。亞孟。
Saint Carmen Sallés y Barangueras
St. Carmen Sallés y Barangueras was born in April 9, 1848, the first daughter of José Sallés and Francisca Barangueras. Living in Vic, near Barcelona, in Spain, she was the second of ten children of her parents. Two days after, she was baptized with the name “Carmen.” Her parents gave her a firm Catholic education when she was enrolled in the school of “Compañía de María” where she learned to love the feast of the Niña María.
God’s call to become Christ’s bride came to her after a pilgrimage in Montserrat. She turned down her parents’ plan to marry and entered religious life in the Adores Sisters as a novice where she cared for the needy women of the society. She then moved to the Dominican Sisters of the Annunciation where she taught in schools, but she took priority for the girls who have little or no education at all. She was discriminated in the congregation because of her ideas, but God always provides. She prayed and sensed her surroundings, waiting for God’s will for her. Along with Sisters Candelaria, Remedios and Emilia they went to Burgos, Spain and in the 7th of December, 1892 the Archbishop of Burgos granted a Diocesan approval to the “Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of Mary” and authorized the opening of the first Conceptionist school. The congregation founded more schools she called “the Houses of Mary Immaculate” and with her fellow sisters, they went through all corners of Spain.
With her hard labor, God saw it best to call her back and to receive her heavenly reward on the 25th of July, 1911 at 63 years of age. A year after, a group of sisters voyaged to the New World, in the country of Brazil. Her holy life was recognized when Pope St. John Paul II beatified her on 15th of March 1998, during the Centennial Anniversary of the congregation. She was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on the 21st of October 2012.
Prayer
St. Carmen Sallés, pray for us.
資料來源 References