Dominicas de María in Atotonilco
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| Sanctuary in Atotonilco |
In 1946 the Archbishop of León was given permission by the
government to reopen the Sanctuary in Atotonilco that had also been confiscated
and lay in ruins. The Oratorians reopened the sanctuary and asked the Superior of the
community at Santo Domingo for help. When she proposed the idea to Mercedes Alvarez, the Sister they were hoping would take the position, she turned it down. One by one Sisters declined the offer. By the time it came to María Almaguer, the last in the line, the invitation was
an order rather than a request. And so it happened, after suffering through exclaustration and exile, scraping together funds to restore the beaterio, petitioning the Bishop for canonical affiliation with the Congregation of
the Queen of the Holy Rosary and ten years of poverty and humiliation during the religious
persecution, Madre María went instead to begin a new congregation at Atotonilco. Ten years later she was dispensed of her vows to Congregation of the Queen of the Holy Rosary in order to found Hermanas Santa Escuela de María. Her congregation founded in Atotonilco was affiliated to the Dominican
Order as Hermanas Dominicas de María
in 1974.
(Amado Luarca 2018), pp. 98-105
