Blessed Jane of Aza

Blessed Jane and her son Saint Dominic

Blessed Jane was born in the Castle of Aza at Peñafiel in Spain sometime around 1135.  She is believed to have died sometime between 1185 and 1194 when Saint Dominic was studying at Palencia, but the hagiographical tradition places her death at August 2, 1205. She was buried in the parish church of Caleruega, but her remains were subsequently translated, first to the Guzmán family burial-place at Gumiel d'Izan, and later to her own birthplace in Peñafiel.  She was beatified by Leo XII in 1828.

She is generally thought to have belonged to a noble Spanish family related by blood to Saint Lewis of France and Saint Ferdinand of Spain.  Of her youth we have no particulars; as soon as she was of an age to marry, she contracted an alliance with Don Felix de Guzmán of Caleruega in Old Castile, whose lineage was as noble and as saintly as her own. His personal character, as well as his rank, rendered him in every way worthy to become her husband; and the household over which they ruled was so remarkable for its piety and good order, that it was commonly said rather to resemble that of a monastery than of a knightly castle.
 
To singular beauty of person and the charms of a cultivated mind, Blessed Jane added solid piety and great energy in the practice of good works. The world had never had any attractions for her; she applied herself diligently to the requirements of her state, and devoted all the time which remained after the discharge of her domestic duties to prayer and works of charity. She was ever distinguished for humility, and, high-born lady as she was, the simplicity and modesty of her bearing excelled that of all her attendants. She frequently spent the whole night in devotional exercises, made pilgrimages to the neighboring sanctuaries, and visited the sick and poor in their humble dwellings.

Of the three sons born of this truly Christian marriage, Antonio, the eldest, became a secular priest, and, enamored of holy poverty, distributed his patrimony to the poor and retired to a hospital, where he spent the remainder of his days humbly ministering to the sick. Mannes, the second son, also embraced the ecclesiastical state, in due course became one of the first Friar Preachers, and has received the honors of beatification. By the dedication of both their sons to the service of the sanctuary, Don Felix and his wife were left without an heir to carry on the succession of their family, and desiring greatly to obtain from Heaven the gift of yet another son, Doña Jane resolved to present her petition to God through the intercession of Saint Dominic of Silos, a Saint at that time renowned throughout Spain for the fame of his miracles, especially in the releasing of captives.
 

The Monastery of Silos, which stands in the near vicinity of Caleruega, was the resort of pilgrims from every part of the country; and there, with the approbation of the Abbot, she began a novena, spending, not her days only, but her nights also in the church, the hard pavement of which was her only bed. On the seventh day of the novena the Saint appeared to her, and declared that her prayers were heard, and that she would become the mother of a son who should be the light of the Church and the terror of heretics. In gratitude, she offered to the Saint the child who was to be given her through his intercession, and promised that, in memory of this favor, he should bear the name of Dominic. Before his birth she beheld her son in a dream or vision, represented under the figure of a black and white dog, holding in its mouth a torch which kindled and illuminated the entire world. 

About this time also Jane had, with her accustomed liberality, distributed to the poor the entire contents of a cask of excellent wine. Fearing that this might cause some annoyance to her husband, she knelt down in the cellar and offered the following touching prayer: – "O Lord Jesus, though I do not deserve to be heard, I beseech Thee, nevertheless, to take pity upon me in the name of Thy servant, the dear little child whom I bear in my womb and whom I have consecrated to Thee." The prayer was scarcely ended when the cask was found to be miraculously refilled.
 

Doña Jane would entrust to no one the nurturing of this child of benediction, the future father and founder of the Order of Preachers; she brought him up herself with the utmost care, and, when he was but a few weeks old, she and Don Felix bore him to the Abbey of Silos and offered him to God before the altar of Saint Dominic. The Abbot celebrated a Mass of thanksgiving, and when turning round to say the Dominus vobiscum, his eyes chanced to rest upon the infant, and he uttered instead the words, "Ecce reparator Ecclesia" – "Behold the reformer of the Church." Perceiving his mistake, he endeavored to correct it, but three times the same words involuntarily escaped his lips, and they were taken as a presage of the child's future destiny.
 
Blessed Jane also carried the infant to the tomb of his great-uncle, Blessed Peter of Ucles, the founder of the military religious Order of the Knights of Saint James of the Sword. She seems frequently to have visited this spot, where a hermitage still bears her name, whilst a fountain and garden in the neighborhood are called the fountain and garden of Saint Dominic. When he had reached the age of seven, she entrusted her child to the care of her brother, the arch-priest of the neighboring town of Gumiel d'Izan; and another of her brothers, the Abbot of La Vid, seems also to have had his share in the education of the young Saint.
 
Don Felix and Blessed Jane must have had other children besides the three here mentioned, as it is certain that Saint Dominic and Blessed Mannes had two nephews who entered the Order of Preachers; and the name of Guzman has been perpetuated in Spain even to our own days and has been allied by marriage to many of the royal families of Europe.

From “Short Lives of the Dominican Saints” (London, Kegan Paul, Trench, and Trübner & Co., Ltd., 1901)

Ministry Under Fire and More

In May I completed the study of Devotion to Mary in the Caribbean Missions and presented my findings.  I am sharing my research with the Mariological Society of America and the McGreal Center at Dominican University in River Forest, IL.   This year I am studying the mission of the Queen of the Holy Rosary Congregation in Mexico.  I am using Sister Maria Victoria Hernandez’s self-published book Ministry Under Fire as a starting point.   

My research is part of the preparation for 2016 celebration of the confirmation of the Dominican Order, the International Congress on the History of the Order of Preachers in America, and the McGreal Center’s online publication of OPUS Vol. II - Dominicans on Mission.  My research purpose is to discover how devotion to Our Lady was introduced in the mission, the effects of enculturation and syncretism on regional beliefs about Our Lady, the establishment of Our Lady’s patronage over the region and the current needs and challenges. I'm using the same outline I followed in my study of the Caribbean missions.
  

General Outline:

1. Arrival of the missionaries and description the religious beliefs of the natives they encountered

2. Colonial approach to mission and its impact on the native peoples and other inhabitants

3. Establishment of the Church and significant religious institutions in the region

4. Local legends associated with Our Lady’s patronage of the region

5. Government support, interference, suppression, expulsion or elimination of the mission

6. Evangelization processes employed and paradigm shifts in approach to mission

7. Closure of institutions and withdrawal or transfer of mission to local inhabitants

8. Effects of enculturation and syncretism on beliefs about Our Lady in the region

9. Current religious demography and state of devotion to Our Lady in the region

10. Present needs, challenges and hopes for the future

I am planning to have my research on the Caribbean translated into Spanish and to invite a Sister in Mexico to research and co-author the study on the Mexican missions with me.  I want to interview some of the Sisters with lived memories of what happened and get their views of the political turmoil of the revolution and its aftermath.  I will be reporting my findings here. 

Dominican Missions in the Caribbean

A grant from the Mariological Society of America supports my study of Mary and Evangelization in the Foreign Missions of U.S. Dominican Women.  I conducted the initial research at the McGreal Center for Dominican Historical Studies in River Forest, IL and grouped the missions to be studied into five regions: the Caribbean, Asia, Latin America, Oceania and Africa. This year I focused the on five missions to the Caribbean: Cuba (1901), Puerto Rico (1910), Jamaica (1911), the Dominican Republic (1945) and Haiti (2010).  I will report my findings at the annual meeting of the Mariological Society in LaCrosse, Wisconsin this May.  In the coming weeks I will post the fruit of my study, a work in progress, here on this blog.  I hope you enjoy reading it and I welcome your comments.  My policy is not to post my readers' comments.  However, I do read them, and treasure your thoughtful responses. 

Chart of Missions to be Studied

First Dominican Sisters sent to the Caribbean

Dominican presence in the Caribbean predates the presence of the Order in the rest of the American hemisphere.  The Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine de’ Ricci were the first to send American Dominican Sisters to the Caribbean.  This is the story of their foundation, their call to establish a mission in Cuba, the religious and political situation in Cuba, their use of devotion to Our Lady as a means of spreading the Gospel, what transpired politically, the current state of devotion to Our Lady and the Catholic faith in Cuba and recommendations for future missions. 

Born into a Protestant family in 1845, Lucy Eaton Smith, later known as Mother Catherine de’ Ricci, the foundress of the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine de’ Ricci (Elkins Park), converted to Catholicism in 1865 and received her first communion at the age of 21.  In 1872 she first met the Dominicans on a trip to Europe where she had been sent by the family physician to the take the baths for her health.  She made a retreat in France and was deeply impressed by the spiritual retreat ministry of the Ladies of the Cenacle in Fourviere.  She confessed to her Spiritual Director Pere Augustine that she wished to make vows as a Dominican tertiary and enter with the Ladies of the Cenacle or with the Dominican Sisters in England.  Pere Augustine received her private vows as a 3^rd Order Dominican but dissuaded her from entering the novitiate in Europe.  Instead he advised her to return home to New York to start a new foundation saying.  “Your own country needs you; bustling America needs just such a tranquillizing work as you propose.” 

Firmly intent on establishing a new foundation to provide spiritual retreats for women in America similar to those she had experienced in Europe, Lucy sailed for New York in July of 1876.  Her youngest sister, Isabelle, whom the family called Lillie was baptized that same year and received into the Catholic Church just in time for her Lucy’s return.   She shared Lucy’s plans for a new foundation but their plans were thwarted temporarily by Father John Rochford, OP, the provincial in New York, who suggested she enter a congregation newly approved to be founded by Catherine Antoninus Thorpe in 1877.  She obeyed the Provincial’s advice, but much as she loved Mother Antoninus, the mission of her congregation (later known as the Sparkill Dominicans) was to care for the children of indigent immigrants and the orphans left in the aftermath of the Civil War.  

Lucy’s dream of a congregation to provide spiritual retreats for women persisted and she resolved to see it through.  Three years later on May 24, 1880 on the feast of Our Lady Help of Christians, Lucy made religious vows and took the name of Sister Maria Catherine de’ Ricci of the Heart of Christ.  She returned to Europe for further guidance and visited Lourdes and the monastery of St Vincent in Prato, Italy where the body of her patroness St. Catherine de’ Ricci lies incorrupt beneath the altar.   In 1887, she finally won the approval of the Bishop of Albany, NY, Rev. Francis McNierney to found a new Dominican Congregation with the purpose of offering spiritual retreats for women.  She dedicated it in honor of St. Catherine de’ Ricci.  Her sister Lillie joined her and together they took possession of the Monastery of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in Albany with the help of a gift in the amount of $5,000 from an anonymous benefactor. 

Dominican Sisters Invited to Havana in 1900

The purpose of the congregation as laid out in the Bishop’s letter of approval was to be two-fold, the cloistered Sisters would devote themselves to the spiritual works of the retreat and home for homeless or unemployed girls, and the “out Sisters” would attend to business outside the convent, such as visiting the dying and caring for the poor, “when called upon.” Mother Catherine de’ Ricci, continued to suffer from the illness for which she was sent to Europe to recuperate.  Sadly only a short time after founding the congregation, she died on January 1, 1894.  On the Feast of Our Lady’s Nativity, September 8^th, 1894, Mother Catherine de Ricci’s sister Lillie, called Mother Mary Loyola of Jesus in religious life, was elected to succeed her as Mother General.  The end of Spanish-American War in 1898 opened up new possibilities for missionaries in the Caribbean and Latin American.  The newly appointed Bishop of Havana, Monsignor Donato Raffaele Sbarretti Tazza invited Mother Mary Loyola to send a few Dominican Sisters to Cuba to set up an orphanage for black and mestizo children without families to care for them. In response to this invitation Mother Loyola visited Havana in 1900 to investigate further and see what would be needed for this endeavor.  With the help of a letter of introduction written by President Theodore Roosevelt, in 1901 Mother Loyola opened a school for the orphans placing it under the patronage of Our Lady of the Rosary.  She brought with her four Dominican Sisters from New York: Sister Sibyllina, Sister Imelda Teresa, Sister Henry and Sister Rose.  Our Lady of the Rosary was a free orphanage and school for black and mestizo children orphaned by the Spanish-American war.  Also in that same year Mother Loyola opened an academy for the English speaking daughters of upper class families placing that under the patronage of Our Lady Help of Christians.  Mother Loyola’s hope was to call upon the local devotion to Our Lady of Charity to instill a spirit of charity in the wealthy families of the area so that they would use their own resources to help to care for the poor in their midst and support the orphanage. At the time of their arrival Cuba was the largest island in the Caribbean and only 110 miles from the shores of the United States in Key West.  

History of the Islands Ceded to U.S. in 1898

At the time of the Dominican Sisters’ arrival there was already a deep historical connection between the U.S. and Cuba.  The island is one of several that had been claimed for Spain by Christopher Columbus in October 1492. Cuba had been a colony of Spain until the end of the Spanish-American War in 1898 when Spain ceded the territories of Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam to the United States.  Cuba was temporarily administered by the United States when the first Dominican Sisters arrived in 1901 to open an orphanage in Havana.  The following year the U.S. granted Cuba its independence.

Seeds of Catholic Faith Planted in Cuba

Owing to the Spanish colonization from 1492 to 1898, the seeds of the Roman Catholic faith were already planted and devotion to Our Lady centered on a local cult at El Cobre that began in the early part of the 17^th century. This is the legend of Our Lady of Cobre as told by the black slave Juan Moreno to the parish priest at El Cobre.  He and two native boys named Juan had been sent out in a boat in the Bay of Nipe to get salt for the Barajagua slaughter house for the preservation meat.  A storm came up suddenly and their boat began to toss violently on waves.  

It happened that Juan Moreno was wearing a medal with the image of the Virgin Mary, and fearing for his life he began to pray for her protection.  Suddenly the storm ended and the sky cleared.  In the distance the three Juans saw a strange object floating toward them in the water.  The waves brought the object to the boat slowly and it turned out to be a small statue of the Virgin Mary holding the child Jesus on her left arm and a gold cross in her right hand.  An inscription attached to the statue said simply, “I am the Virgin of Charity."  

They were overjoyed to find that the skin of the Virgin was dark like a mulatto and she was dressed with real cloth and her hair was real hair.    Naturally they attributed their miraculous salvation to Our Lady and this statue was a gift from God to prove it.  They rowed ashore and brought the miraculous statue the overseer, Don Francisco Sánchez de Moya.