Daughters of Mary Help of Christians
creative exponents of the Preventive system
Throughout history, the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians have considered Don Bosco's Preventive System as a source of inspiration in educating young women so that they could become active and responsible protagonists of their integral growth and that of the people entrusted to them. For decades their educational proposal has been innervated more in the experience, in the life stories, than in the writings and reflections.
The profiles of some FMA creative interpreters of the Preventive System of different periods and geographical contexts are the approach to micro-history, linked to the incisiveness of figures in the territory, sometimes innovative in different types of works, not always coinciding with that of origin, such as in the case of many missionaries.
Each expresses a concrete face that has left its mark in the Institute, in the local Church, in society.
Obviously, only by placing these few tiles in the entire mosaic, with its lights and shadows, can life be grasped in its complexity.
Africa
Blandine Roche, Tunisia (1906-1999)
french
Edited by Maria Rohrer
It grows in a European-Christian vacuum that practically ignored the local population. In La Manouba, on the western outskirts of Tunis, she became a missionary in her own country, she welcomes Muslim children initially as an educator, moved by the Salesian charism. Little by little she works a profound personal conversion that leads her to love these young people. A visible sign is given by the fact that in her vocabulary she replaced the designation "Arab" with "little Tunisians", before the ecumenical wave of the Second Vatican Council.
Jeanne Vincent, Gabon (1915-1997)
french
Edited by Marie-Marthe Ekengbi Ndong
French, in 1972 he left for Africa: destination Port Gentil, in Gabon. In the neighborhood where the community of sisters lives, the Kindergarten run by Sister Jeanne is a novelty. She devotes herself full time to it, ensuring above all the pedagogical-didactic training of the educators and teaching the children French, in addition to the local languages with which they usually communicated. Her little ones were her magnet: beyond the school, the oratory, the catechesis ... on Sundays, before the parish mass, she was found and walked with them through the streets of the neighborhood. She has always had a particular sensitivity for children in difficulty, especially for those with physical disabilities. To communicate with blind children she learned Braille and, with their families, she organized activities so that they could learn the "normality" of everyday life.
Maria Gertrudes da Rocha, Mozambique (1933-2017)
portugues
Edited by Inacia Chaquisse
Portuguese, she arrived as a missionary in Mozambique in 1964, a few years before the nationalization of schools was established, followed by the civil war and the advance of Marxism. She leaves a trace of her resourcefulness in the oratory, in the catechesis where she accompanied groups of adolescents and young people; she has opened workshops and professional schools for the promotion and integral education of women in knitting, cooking and sewing. In the “D. Bosco "of Maputo Infulene as an educator of the street children who were interns, she gave her all, bearing witness to her love for work and competence in catechesis, values that she passed on to the young people she educated in the cultivation of fields and the breeding of animals.
America
Rosa Gutiérrez, Argentina/Chile (1861-1943)
spanish
Edited by Ana María Fernandez
Among the first Argentine FMA, in 1895 he arrived in Rio Grande, in Tierra del Fuego. For nine years he devoted himself full time to the girls of the Onas ethnic group, entrusted to his care: day and night, he studied and played with them. In those years, he manages to compose a small dictionary of about sixty pages, where he collects the words of the spoken language of ona women, which differs from that of men. This text, of interest for study - in a single copy - is currently in the missionary archive of Turin Valsalice. After leaving the Magellanic Lands, she was a primary school teacher for many years. She knew how to be loved and feared by the pupils who were always very numerous.
Onorina Lanfranco, Colombia (1872-1948)
spanish
Edited by Monica Tausa
Trained in pedagogy, Italian, missionary part for Colombia, exerting a considerable influence on the educational and teacher training imprint that the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians hired in the country. She was responsible for the legal recognition of the first master's course run by the nuns. Starting from the Preventive System, she manages to make the Catholic pedagogical tradition dialogue with modern pedagogical postulates, many of which are censored by the Church, and she does so without abandoning her religious identity. In Colombia we owe the opening of the first - the first ever at a national level - kindergarten / kindergarten, set up next to the "Maria Auxiliadora" house in Medellín. Her figure attracts the interest of pedagogical historians.
Martina Petrini, Uruguay/Colombia (1874-1965)
spanish
Edited by Martha Franco
Among the first Uruguayan FMA, she was an educator with a true Salesian spirit, teacher and appreciated teacher educator, promoter of master's training, to cope with the secularist culture of the country with the training of Christian teachers and girls from disadvantaged conditions. She left traces above all in Las Piedras and Montevideo. From 1942, and until her death, she lived and worked in the hospital in Contratación (Colombia). She was almost seventy when she arrived there and her life was turned upside down: she was beginning an absolutely new period of life in the leper colony. Her favorite were the poorest of the poor, and not only such because of her suffering physique ... The children soon learned to know her heart, rich in her benevolence, and so did the girls who frequented the oratory holiday.
Catalina Hauret, Argentina (1878-1964)
spanish
Edited by María Elena Fernandez
Strong woman, pioneer of Argentine Catholic education, school organizer and wise guide in the training of teachers. Because of her outstanding didactic and pedagogical skills, she also collaborates in the training of catechists in the diocese of La Plata. For many years, since 1938 she has been a member of the Higher Council of Catholic Education at the national level and in 1954 she was appointed vice president of the Instituto del Profesorado directed by the same Superior Council. All of her recognize in her the exemplary educator who makes the chair an authentic daily apostolate. What she teaches is light for the mind and above all conviction and mediation of values that fall into the life of the young teachers who are preparing for their future mission. With her prophetic vision, she favors the training of teachers in every way and does not rest until the sisters have the qualifications required by the state. It is not possible to calculate the schools of the Institute and of other religious institutes established by her, oriented and supported from an educational and didactic point of view. Someone says: "If Sister Catalina were a man he would already be Minister of Education!"
Agostina Rossi, El Salvador/Honduras (1881-1973)
spanish
Edited by Patricia Aguilar
Italian, at the age of 32 she arrived as a missionary in Central America. As a physical education teacher, she stands out nationally by deserving awards that give prestige to all the educational activities of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in El Salvador and Honduras, for the introduction of women's basketball. In addition to teaching rhythmic gymnastics, she gave lessons in pedagogy and didactics and was also a school counselor.
Anna Maria Coppa, Argentina/Ecuador (1891-1973)
spanish
Edited by Sandra Armijos
Italian, missionary in Argentina and Ecuador. At a time when legislation was beginning to require professionalization for the exercise of teaching, she showed great concern for the pedagogical training of the sisters, making them participate in courses and even sending them to the state university. Furthermore, the Scuola Normale was the space required by the Federation of Catholic Institutes for the qualification of a large number of religious from different congregations. In 1940, Cardinal Carlo Maria Della Torre valued his intelligent and far-sighted collaboration for the opening of the nation's first female Catholic Normal School. Beyond the acknowledgments, the educational mission she developed has an incalculable value because, through the Scuola Normale, she raised the cultural level of the religious and made them fit to carry out an educational work of great importance in the country. Through the training of Catholic teachers, you contributed to the spread of Don Bosco's educational system and created a new generation of Salesian educators capable of responding, above political ideologies, to the challenges of the Church, of the Ecuadorian state. In 1957 he was awarded the Decoration of the National Order "of merit" in the rank of Grand Officer, and in 1965, the Decoration of "Educational Merit".
María Luisa Menchaca Galván, Mexico (1892-1982)
spanish
Edited by Anabel Vera Baños
Mexican, for 69 years "teacher of teachers". In Morelia she will live for 40 years as an elementary school teacher, assistant intern, elementary and preschool director, school and community counselor, responsible for the discipline. In 1924, due to religious persecution, the school building was transformed into a fortress. Together with 25 nuns and 60 young interns, she endures for three days and three nights, hidden under a ladder, armed fire, hunger, thirst and dreams. Finally, she manages to leave the building with the girls and, supported by the past pupils, together with the other FMA she decides to continue teaching anonymously and without the religious habit in other places. In 1965 she received the gold medal from the central government for being "the best educator and teacher within the federal, state and local system" and she obtained the social recognition of the School, always reaching first place in academic competitions. Other nearby institutions were inspired by her style of work and discipline management.
María Romero Meneses, Costa Rica/Nicaragua (1902-1977)
spanish
Edited by Marianela Fernandez
Born in Nicaragua to a distinguished family, friend and solidarity with the poor, she is the first woman in Central America to be proclaimed Blessed. Not only does she choose the poor and she consecrates herself to them, but she manages to convince the richest to be in solidarity with those who have nothing. In San José of Costa Rica, which becomes her second homeland, she identifies the field of her mission, especially among the poorest, the boys and girls of the street, the families in need. She raises the misioneritas, little girls from the College who go two by two, like the disciples, to the suburbs to help and to teach catechism. This is how dozens and dozens of festive oratories are born where thousands of children come to pray, play, receive clothes and food. The Casa de la Virgen soon became a landing place for the poor with a medical dispensary, a school for social orientation and houses for poor and abandoned girls. Thanks to benefactors and benefactors, ASAYNE, Asociación Ayuda Necesitados, was born, Citadels of Mary Help of Christians on the outskirts of the city, where it is more urgent to give homes to the homeless. Today all these works exist and are managed by ranks of lay people who, together with some FMA, have welcomed her prophetic witness. Thus they continue to organize hope, in gestures of solidarity towards the poorest.
María Betancur Betancur, Colombia (1927-2018)
spanish
Edited by Monica Tausa
In the 1980s, the number of boys and girls “on the street” and “on the street” in Medellín, an expanding industrial city in Colombia, took on an impressive scale. Faced with this phenomenon, she supports and decides the foundation of the “Mamma Margherita” home: a project of Christian education for girls without a family, in situations of hardship or abandonment. Her conviction was that, as Don Bosco had promised, "to those who work for the poor, Providence will not be lacking". Together with Sr. Fabiola Ochoa and the educational community, made up of laymen and women religious, she creates an original experience that transforms an institution into a home and a school, a formative space capable of adapting to the reality and needs of each child or young. She herself teaches the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and lay educators how to interact with adolescents and girls at risk so that the house becomes a real family according to the preventive system. Over the years, the work has been recognized by local, national and international bodies: among others, the Presidency of the Colombian Republic.
Olga de Sá, Brazil (1928-2020)
portugues
Edited by Olga Arantes
For 60 years he was a teacher at the secondary school and at the “Teresa d'Àvila” University Center in Lorraine (Brazil). In 2002 she was appointed as a member of the Education Council of the State of São Paulo. An intelligent, creative woman with wide horizons, she distinguished herself for her high cultural level, for her dedication to the educational mission, in particular for the university education of young people. For her, the field of culture was the theological space for the encounter with God and for the exercise of her mission as a Salesian religious.
Rosa Ballón Vera, Perù (1928-2016)
spanish
Edited by Jenny Cruzat
In Peru, in 1975 he opened the first “Centro Educativo no Estatal de Capacitación (CENECAPE) María Auxiliadora” in Lima Breña, which later became the “Centro Educativo Ocupacional”, devoting itself professionally to the promotion of working women. For 15 years she was the secretary of Caritas in Lima, forming a team of committed people: religious, lay people and young university students specialized in Social Service. In 1992 she founded the “Hogar del Niño” house in Lima Chorrillos to welcome children at risk in that area. The fruits of that work are in those who today are professionals, traders, workers. You have concretely realized Don Bosco's ideal: "to educate good Christians and honest citizens".
Marta Eugenia Soto Leitón, Honduras (1944-2021)
spanish
Edited by Patricia Aguilar
She had a strong temperament, determined and resolute, lively and intuitive. Understanding and sensitivity for the most defenseless, were the characteristics that permeated her working environment both as a teacher and catechist first and then as a pioneer of distance and radio education in Honduras, leaving an indelible mark in the history of education of that Village. In 1973, she meets the Jesuit Father Franz Tattenbach, founder of the Institute of Radio Education (ICER) in Costa Rica and she begins to collaborate with him in her spare time: she thus begins her mission with the poorest of the poor. In 1980, while she was in Guatemala, she promoted the "Maestro en Casa" program for two years in the oratory of the same school. This was the initiative that motivated the founding of the Guatemalan Institute of Educación Radiofónica (IGER). In 1990, having arrived in Honduras, she founded the Instituto Hondureño de Educación por Radio (IHER), installing all the material in the gymnasium of the Salesian Institute "Maria Auxiliadora" in Tegucigalpa, which became its first headquarters. She will be in charge of it for 32 years. For her special mission, she has received numerous acknowledgments from students and from the authorities of the countries where the educational program arrived. In 2014, the President of Honduras, Porfirio Lobo, and the Minister of Education, Marlon Escoto, awarded her a prestigious award for her valuable contribution to Honduran education. In 2017, the National Anti-Corruption Council (CNA) awarded her the award for honesty and transparency. She also received international recognition in all countries that use the ECCA system (Modular System at the service of adult education).
Asia
Carmela Solari, Japan (1891-1985)
italian
Edited by Marisa Gambato
Italian, in 1930, she arrives in Miyazaki, Japan. She is considered "Mother and Teacher", due to her activity as founder of social works for children in distress. Her attention to her little ones was expressed in welcoming them without placing the condition of baptism. In social works as in school, in fact, the recipients were not Christians, but she made no difference. Convinced that every child is a child of God, she treated everyone with the utmost respect and kindness. In 1957 she was in charge of the expedition to start the work in South Korea. Returning to Japan, in 1970 she received the recognition of Knight of the Republic from Italy for her work in favor of the young people of that country.
Terezija Medvešek, India (1906-2001)
english
Edited by Lily Perumpettikunnel
Generous and enterprising missionary of Slovenian origin, who loved the poor and the needy. Although she had no degree, she knew how to deal effectively with parents and teachers. Her apostolic field was the road. She visited and reached many villages, facing great sacrifices of various kinds that forced her to travel long distances on foot or on horseback, suffering from hunger and thirst, without comfort of any kind. The Jaintia Hills were a stronghold of Protestants, hostile to the nuns. Despite their contrary attitudes, she with tenacity and courage, listening and talking to her, accompanies them to receive the Good News of the Gospel and prepares many adults for Baptism, as well as children and young people. She also had the opportunity to instruct women when she stopped in the villages: she knew how to earn the trust of the heads of the families, who opened the doors of the houses to the nuns.
Rose Moore, Thailandia (1911-1996)
italian
Edited by Anna Grassi
Irish, in 1932 he left for the Mission in Siam (now Thailand), destination Bang Nok Khwaek, Ratchaburi province, where the FMA had established the first community. After the first three years of learning the language, he dedicated himself to assisting girls and young people in the small school. But in 1947 his mission changed with the hiring of the unexpected new work of educational resilience of blind children and young people in Bangkok. Sister Rose was able to update the preparation according to political needs in the various periods: the Second World War, the numerous coups d'etat that periodically followed in the country and the setting of civil life more in line with international experience; the experience of the prison to which she was subjected, the effort to get the new work accepted by the Institute, while it was strongly desired by the leaders of the local church; the effort of training lay teachers who are not all consenting to the presence of the religious.
Helen Fernandes, India (1917-2012)
english
A cura di Philomena De Souza
Indiana is at the beginning of the story of bringing quality education to young women in the arid North Arcot district of Tamilnadu. It took his visionary passion to start what is now Auxilium College Katpadi: an autonomous institution affiliated with the Thiruvalluvar University of Vellore which with 17 undergraduate and 12 postgraduate courses, 8 research courses at doctoral level, led by 185 faculty members who teach more than 3,800 students, it is a gigantic institution spanning a vast campus. Graduated in economics, not only with the funds, but with her broad views she manages to build a University College for women in such a backward area. Thus she breaks down the wall of discrimination against female literacy of those times which, according to the official government census of 1951, in the North Arcot district had 37 high schools for boys and only 5 high schools for girls.
Mirta Mondin, South Korea (1922-1977)
italian
Edited by Hiang-Chu Ausilia Chang
Italian, it was not made for narrow borders. In Kwangju in South Korea, Sister Mirta spent almost her entire missionary life. She arrived there in 1958. It is not easy to describe the difficulties encountered by the first missionaries: the language, the customs, the beginnings of the school ... The road was all uphill. Catholicism was just in its infancy and the foreign nuns seemed to come from the other world. Sister Mirta and the missionaries set to work to create and develop the city's first female Catholic high school. In a few years, the pupils and pupils grew and became thousands. The teachers, not all Catholic, formed a committed community. The pivot was Sister Mirta, who never tired of animating, correcting, welcoming, supervising, setting up teaching activities, organizing administration, taking care of Salesian pedagogical formation. For twenty years he gave an incredible impulse to the school which grew, full of initiatives, articulated in the training offer: the pupils stayed long and the days had to be organized between theoretical lessons and practical exercises. In a rigid culture and strongly marked by the military regime, Sister Mirta preached the Gospel of the sweetness and goodness of God.
Nancy Pereira, India (1923-2010)
english
Edited by Sanghita Rani
In India, it promotes the poor, in particular the role of women in view of human and economic development, referring to the approach of the Bank of the poor, by Yunus. As a sign of appreciation for her work, she has been awarded several titles such as: tireless entrepreneur, heroine of the untouchables of India, Sister of the Bank of the poor or Sister banker, architect of the development of women.
Europe
Anna Juzek, Poland (1879-1957)
italian
Edited by Bernadeta Lewek
Strengthened by a good education and cultural formation, the life of Sister Anna is linked to the events experienced by Poland from the end of the nineteenth century to the whole of the first half of the twentieth century. In 1914 she was forced to take refuge in Italy, due to the outbreak of the First World War and, after a brief passage in Castelgrande (Basilicata, Italy) and Mahwah (New Jersey, United States), in 1922 she was called to be part of the first group of FMA, who were to start the Salesian educational mission in Poland. Initiator of a professional school with a sewing, knitting and embroidery workshop, the work is established because it offers young women the opportunity to learn a trade. Over the years, her generous dedication, supported by an intrepid faith, allowed her to carry out grueling negotiations in a satisfactory way with the civil authorities, who often denied due recognition to the educators or tried to reduce salaries.
Virginia Ferraro, Spain (1894-1963)
spanish
Edited by María Dolores Ruíz Perez
An intelligent, cultured and pleasant woman, of great empathy and kindness, cheerful and beautiful. She has a great social sensitivity and is committed to the promotion of women. In 1919 she helped found the Sindicato de la Aguja, the Union of seamstresses, in Torrent, even though she didn't want her name to appear as such. Her work was highly appreciated by the young workers who helped her a lot in their training. Her way of exercising leadership is very enlightening, based on three convictions: 1) union of kindness with intelligence and tenacity: she is defined as a person capable of finding the best solution to problems; 2) resilience and defense of rights: she remained firm and at the same time kind, she gave space to freedom and knew how to wait patiently for the right moment to intervene; 3) everything with joy and good humor: in her the Salesian charism was made everything to everyone.
Iside Malgrati, Italy (1904-1992)
italian
Edited by Loredana Corazza
In Italy, it was able to graft the cornerstones of Salesian pedagogy in the Lombard context, in the years of its full economic development with the aim of forming "good Christians and honest citizens". You are particularly attentive to the professional formation of the less fortunate social groups, to the value of the press and of culture as ways of evangelization. She has been able to interpret the instances of cultural innovation concerning the role of women in industrial society, with state-of-the-art institutions. The Superior General, Mother Angela Vespa, entrusted her with the task of designing and implementing the magazine Primavera, for the training of adolescents, in a phase in which women were entering fully into Italian history with the duty to participate in public and social life. and politics. In this vein, she elaborates the Da mihi aminas project, a brochure to guide and qualify educational and religious activity in the oratories.
Anita Della Ricca, Italy (1911-1994)
italian
Edited by Lauretta Valente
Italian, she is a woman capable of grasping the signs of the times and the evolution of professional possibilities for the youth world, of relating at different levels, with young people and entrepreneurs, authorities and superiors, of persevering with tenacity in the realization of projects, up to civil recognition by the Italian Center for Salesian Women's Works (CIOFS).
Teresa Font, Spain (1912-1978)
spanish
Edited by Begoña Labairu
It is in the number of Spaniards who in 1936 experienced the civil war. His character was forged in suffering from the succession of premature deaths and painful infirmities, and from the experience of nursing in field hospitals. In Pamplona, on the outskirts of Chantrea, an expanding working-class neighborhood, it was all for everyone. He spent himself naturally and together with the watchful heart of a mother, without allowing himself the slightest rest. The sick flocked in large numbers, the visits were pressing and relentlessly because the public clinics were only in the city. In twenty-six years he gave relief and comfort to more than 43,000 infirm. Convinced of the importance of the Catholic press and of the urgency to offer readings appropriate to the young age, she widely propagated the magazine En Marcha, the Italian Spring. You cannot count the steps taken, the flights of stairs climbed to sensitize families and obtain new subscriptions. She considered it a mission that deserved constant efforts and persistence in order to achieve near-blanket distribution.
Angela Cardani, Italy (1925-2019)
italian
Edited by Angela Bertero
In the 1990s, the Municipality of Turin invited the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians to “move” from the city center. Sister Angela brings her educational contribution to the peripheral district of Vallette, offering spaces of leadership to young people and women for over twenty years. He founded VIDES Maìn, a voluntary and commitment institution recognized by the public body, which attributes to him the competence to carry out many projects of educational, scholastic and non-scholastic support, social integration for children, young people and families, animation of the free time.
Mária Černá, Slovakia (1928-2011)
italian
Edited by Kamila Novosedlíková
Slovakian, under the communist regime in the then Czech-Slovakia she lived, from 1950 to 1968, experiences of forced labor in 12 concentration camps for nuns. Since 1970 she has been able to devote herself to education by teaching religion in Trnava, but after a year she has to retire due to the obstacles posed by the communist regime. Since 1974 it has been a point of reference for the support and clandestine formation of novices, thus contributing to the rebirth of the FMA Institute in the country.
Gertrud Haller, Austria (1934-2001)
german
Edited by Gisela Porges
Austrian, she worked as an educator for almost 30 years, distinguishing herself in the Salesian spirit, especially in periods of strong cultural changes that questioned the traditional female image and consequently the certainties of the educators. The realism in the face of the times and the sincere attention to people in view of adult life, were decisive for her ability to adapt to the present. Her trust in her young women was strong: with skill and prudence, she addressed the issues and problems of the sixties and seventies and encouraged them to discuss and reflect. She showed the young women that everything new must be reconsidered and things must always be questioned. In a discreet, kind and loving way she was present 24 hours a day among them, always ready to listen to them. Her girls trusted her and she took their concerns seriously. Each felt comfortable and valued, because she was allowed to be who she was.