This blog is about my spiritual journey as a Dominican Sister of Mission San Jose serving the young, the poor and the vulnerable through the ministry of chaplaincy and working for social justice by promoting the sustainability goals of the United Nations.
Saturday, February 1, 2020
Novitiate
Madre María Almaguer Soto
The most famous of the beatas was Madre María Almaguer Soto. Born in 1893 to devout Catholic parents in Dolores Hidalgo and baptized the same day at Nuestra Señora de los Dolores.The family owned a small house in
the town of San Miguel de Allende and a large and prosperous ranch nearby. By all accounts María was a bright and inquisitive child.When she was seven years old, the family moved to San Antonio del
Carmen. There was no school in the village and when she turned 13, her father began to worry about her education. He inquired in the parish about schools for girls and the parochial vicar suggested the Beaterio of Santo Domingo. Maríahad no prior knowledge of this conversation when they arrived at the door of the beaterio. She assumed she must have done something to disappoint her parents and cried for days. Her spirits improved only after she began to learn to play piano. [1]Fifteen other candidates entered the beaterio that same year, but only Maríapersevered to become a member of the community. The entire region had fallen on hard
times because the silver mines had been depleted and there was no other employment. Poverty and famine spread throughout the area. The once prosperous trading village of San Miguel was a virtual ghost town when little María entered the beaterio.
