by On a religious day with unexpected political overtones, this Sunday the Pope declared María Antonia de San José de Paz y Figueroa a saint, known as Mama Antula (Mamá Antonia) by the Quechua Indians she cared for and whose language she spoke. She is the first saint of Argentina, she lived between 1730 and 1799 and Bergoglio said that she was “a model of apostolic fervor and audacity”.
It was in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, attended by hundreds of Argentine pilgrims, at 9:45 in the morning (5:45 in our country).
“In honor of the Holy and individual Trinity, for the exaltation of the Catholic Faith and the increase of Christian life, with the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul and Our, after having reflected at length, invoked many times the divine help and listened to the opinion of numerous brothers of the Episcopate, we declared and defined blessed María Antonia de San José de Paz y Figueroa as a saint and we inscribe it in the Catalog of Saintsestablishing that throughout the Church it be devoutly honored among the saints,” the pontiff proclaimed.
To the Eucharistic celebration of more than two hours Thousands of people attended and the one that focused the most attentionn of all was the Argentine president Javier Milei, who briefly greeted the Pope in the sacristy. This Monday morning, Milei will be received in audience by Francisco.
In the homily the Pope highlighted that Mama Antula “walked miles of kilometers on foot through deserts and dangerous streets.” He highlighted the work of the new saint “for the life worthy of poverty through work, justice and daily bread.”
The Pope lamented “how many suffering people” are found on “the sidewalks of our cities.”
Francis especially denounced what he called “the leprosy of the soul, a disease that makes us insensitive to loveto the compassion that destroys us through the gangrene of selfishness, prejudice, indifference and intolerance”.
He attended the ceremony and greeted Pope Claudio Perusini, who was saved from an ischemic stroke with hemorrhagic infarction in Santa Fe thanks to the intercession of Mama Antula through the prayers of Perusini’s relatives and friends. A special medical board of Vatican professionals ruled that there was no medical explanation Therefore, the miracle of Mama Antula was recognized, which took her from beatitude to sainthood, proclaimed this Sunday.
In the official biography that was read at the ceremonyIt was remembered that he was born in 1730 in a territory that was then part of Tucumán and today, Santiago del Estero.
“There is little information about his childhood and youth,” the biography added. The Pope had recorded that he walked barefoot for miles in Argentina to help open Jesuit spiritual exercise houses.
In Buenos Aires, where he arrived after two months of walking from Córdoba, managed after many difficulties to open an exercise house that exists to this day. She fell ill, she made a will and died on March 6, 1799. It is estimated that in the last eight years of activity she performed spiritual exercises for more than 70 thousand people. “She had suffered persecution because He had clashed with the political and ecclesiastical authorities of the time after the expulsion of the Jesuits from the territory of the viceroyalty,” concluded the official biography read at the ceremony.
His remains currently rest in the church of Nuestra Señora de la Piedad, in the center of Buenos Aires.
After concluding the celebration, the Pope went to the neighboring Apostolic Palace and after reciting the Sunday Angelus to the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square, he announced the proclamation of Mama Antula. He asked and got from the crowd “a round of applause for the new saint”.
Milei at the canonization ceremony of Mama Antula
At the conclusion of the canonization of the Argentine saint in the basilica, President Milei said goodbye to the Pope and there was a great surprise. The Pope approached him to say goodbye, sitting in the wheelchair he uses to get around due to the problems he suffers from in one of his knees. The Argentine president approached and shook hands. after Milei and the Pope hugged each other.
Milei looked excited. She had followed the ceremony sitting in the front row accompanied by her entourage. The North American agency Associated Press wrote that “she seemed very attentive to the mass, she made the sign of the cross several timesreceived communion and rested his head in his hands while prayed on his knees“
