Laura Montoya (26 May 1874 – 21 October 1949) – known in religion as Laura of Saint Catherine of Siena – was a Colombian
Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
religious sister
A religious sister (abbreviated ''Sr.'' or Sist.) in the Catholic Church is a woman who has taken public vows in a religious institute dedicated to apostolic works, as distinguished from a nun who lives a cloistered monastic life dedicated to pr ...
and the founder of the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Virgin Mary and Saint Catherine of Siena (1914).
She was well known for her work with
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
and for acting as a strong role model for South American girls.
Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...
beatified her in 2004 and
Pope Francis
Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...
canonized her as a saint on 12 May 2013.
Montoya is the first Colombian to be made a saint.
Life
![Tumba de Santa Laura Montoya Upegui](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Tumba_de_Santa_Laura_Montoya_Upegui.jpg)
María Laura de Jesús Montoya Upegui was born on 26 May 1874 in
Jericó in the
United States of Colombia
United States of Colombia () was the name adopted in 1863 by the for the Granadine Confederation, after years of civil war. Colombia became a federal state itself composed of nine "sovereign states.” It comprised the present-day nations ...
as the second of three children to Juan de la Cruz Montoya and Dolores Upegui; she was
baptized
Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...
that same day.
[ Her siblings were older sister Carmelina and younger brother Juan de la Cruz; a maternal cousin was Luisa Upegui. During the ]Colombian Civil War of 1876
The Colombian Civil War of 1876 (also called War of the Schools) was a civil war in the United States of Colombia (present-day Colombia) that went on from 1876 to 1877. The causes of the war date back to approximately 1870, when members of the Col ...
her father was killed and the household left poor as a result of this. Therefore she was sent to live with her maternal grandmother; her grandfather was Lucio Upegui.[
In 1881 the precarious economic condition saw her sent to an orphanage that her maternal aunt María de Jesús Upegui, a nun, managed. This aunt in 1890 enrolled her at "Normale de Institutoras" of Medellín to receive training to become a school teacher as a means of having an income to support the financial difficulties her mother faced.][ She was educated at the Escuela de Espíritu Santo in Amalfi and then in Medellín. In 1886 she went to live on a farm to care for an ill aunt and it was there that her desire to become a religious began. Montoya graduated as a teacher in 1893.
In 1908 she began working with the natives in the Uraba and Sarare regions where she founded the "Works of the Indians". Montoya wanted to become a cloistered ]Carmelite
, image =
, caption = Coat of arms of the Carmelites
, abbreviation = OCarm
, formation = Late 12th century
, founder = Early hermits of Mount Carmel
, founding_location = Mount Car ...
nun
A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...
but felt growing within her the desire to spread the Gospel
Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...
to those who had never met Jesus Christ
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
. Montoya wanted to eliminate the existing racial discrimination and to sacrifice herself in order to bring them Christ's love and teachings.[
On 14 May 1917, she started the "Congregation of Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Virgin Mary and Saint Catherine of Siena". She left Medellín with four other women and went to ]Dabeiba
Dabeiba () is a town and municipality in the Colombian department of Antioquia. The Battle of Dabeiba took place there in October 2000.
Climate
Dabeiba has a tropical rainforest climate
A tropical rainforest climate, humid tropical climate ...
to live among the native Indians. Even though this new order had the support of the Bishop of Santa Fe de Antioquia it was criticized even within Christian groups.[
Montoya died after a prolonged illness on 21 October 1949 in ]Medellín
Medellín ( or ), officially the Municipality of Medellín ( es, Municipio de Medellín), is the second-largest city in Colombia, after Bogotá, and the capital of the department of Antioquia. It is located in the Aburrá Valley, a central re ...
in Colombia. The last nine years of her life were lived in a wheelchair due to this. Her order at present operates in a total of nineteen countries throughout the Americas as well as in Africa and Europe.[
]
Sainthood
The process for sanctification opened in Medellín in an informative process that Archbishop Tulio Botero Salazr opened on 24 June 1963 and later closed on 14 May 1964; theologians later collected and approved her spiritual writings on 22 June 1973 after assessing that such writings were in line with doctrine. An apostolic process was then held there from 16 August 1976 to 19 December 1977 while this and the informative process received validation from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints
In the Catholic Church, the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, previously named the Congregation for the Causes of Saints (), is the dicastery of the Roman Curia that oversees the complex process that leads to the canonization of saints, pa ...
on 22 January 1982.
Montoya became titled as a Servant of God
"Servant of God" is a title used in the Catholic Church to indicate that an individual is on the first step toward possible canonization as a saint.
Terminology
The expression "servant of God" appears nine times in the Bible, the first five in th ...
under Pope Paul VI
Pope Paul VI ( la, Paulus VI; it, Paolo VI; born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, ; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City, Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 to his ...
on 5 April 1976 with the formal introduction of the cause.
The postulation submitted the Positio
In the Catholic Church, a ''positio'' (''Positio super Virtutibus'') is a document or collection of documents used in the process by which a person is declared Venerable, the second of the four steps on the path to canonization as a saint.
Des ...
to the C.C.S. in 1988 which allowed for theologians to issue their assent to the cause on 12 December 1989 and for the C.C.S. to also approve it on 23 October 1990. Montoya became titled as Venerable
The Venerable (''venerabilis'' in Latin) is a style, a title, or an epithet which is used in some Western Christian churches, or it is a translation of similar terms for clerics in Eastern Orthodoxy and monastics in Buddhism.
Christianity
Cathol ...
on 22 January 1991 after Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...
confirmed that the late religious led a model life of heroic virtue
Heroic virtue is a phrase coined by Augustine of Hippo to describe the virtue of early Christian martyrs and used by the Catholic Church. The Greek pagan term hero described a person with possibly superhuman abilities and great goodness, and "it ...
.
The miracle needed for beatification was located and investigated in the diocese of its origin and received C.C.S. validation on 25 January 2002 in Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
while a medical board later approved this miracle on 17 October 2002; theologians followed suit on 1 April 2003 as did the C.C.S. on 3 June 2003. John Paul II approved this healing to be a credible miracle attributed to Montoya's intercession on 7 July 2003 and later beatified her on 25 April 2004 in Saint Peter's Square
Saint Peter's Square ( la, Forum Sancti Petri, it, Piazza San Pietro ,) is a large plaza located directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, the papal enclave inside Rome, directly west of the neighborhood (rione) of Borgo. Bot ...
. The beatification miracle involved the 1994 cure of a woman (aged 86) from uterine cancer.
The second miracle – and the one required for full sanctification – was investigated and later received validation on 7 November 2008. The medical board granted their assent to it on 14 June 2012 while theologians likewise approved it on 12 October 2012; the C.C.S. issued their own approval on 10 December 2012. Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the sovereign ...
approved this on 20 December 2012 and scheduled her canonization at a consistory on 11 February 2013 – which included the pontiff's resignation.
The retired pope's successor Pope Francis
Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...
canonized her as a saint on 12 May 2013. The canonization miracle involves the healing of Doctor Carlos Eduardo Restrepo who was suffering from lupus as well as kidney damage and muscular degeneration. The doctor was said to be cured after requesting the intercession of the then-beatified Montoya.
The postulator
A postulator is the person who guides a cause for beatification or canonization through the judicial processes required by the Roman Catholic Church. The qualifications, role and function of the postulator are spelled out in the ''Norms to be Obse ...
at the time of Montoya's canonization was Silvia Mónica Correale.
See also
* List of Colombian saints
{{unreferenced, date=August 2017
This is a list of Colombian Saint, saints, Beatification, beatified and The Venerable, venerable persons, and Servant of God, Servants of God.
Saints
* Laura Montoya (26 May 1874 – 21 October 1949) is the only ...
References
External links
Hagiography Circle
Saints SQPN
{{Authority control
1874 births
1949 deaths
20th-century Christian saints
20th-century Roman Catholics
20th-century Colombian women
Beatifications by Pope John Paul II
Canonizations by Pope Francis
Christian female saints of the Late Modern era
Colombian people of Basque descent
Colombian Roman Catholic saints
Colombian Roman Catholic religious sisters and nuns
Founders of Catholic religious communities
People from Antioquia Department
Venerated Catholics by Pope John Paul II