Natividad Zialcita (''religious name'': Mother Mary Cecilia of Jesus, O.C.D.) (7 September 1908 – 13 December 1982) was a

Discalced Carmelite The Discalced Carmelites, known officially as the Order of the Discalced Carmelites of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel ( la, Ordo Fratrum Carmelitarum Discalceatorum Beatae Mariae Virginis de Monte Carmelo) or the Order of Discalced Carme ...

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 ...

and prioress of the Carmelite monastery in

Lipa Lipa or LIPA (Cyrillic: Липа) may refer to: Acronym *Liquid Isopropyl alcohol *League for Independent Political Action, a former American progressive political organization *Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, a performing arts school in ...

during the alleged apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of Our Lady, Mediatrix of All Grace (1948). She was also the confidante of the visionary postulant,

Teresita Castillo Teresita Lat Castillo also known as Sister Teresing (July 4, 1927 – November 16, 2016) was a Filipino Roman Catholic nun and a visionary who reported Marian apparitions in Lipa, Batangas, Philippines in the year 1948. These reported apparitions ...

Establishment of the Carmel of Lipa

When the Carmel of Gilmore was founded in 1926, and Bishop

Alfredo Versoza Alfredo Verzosa y Florentín (9 December 1877 - 27 June 1954) was the fourth native Filipino to be elevated as bishop of the Roman Catholic Church and the first from Northern Luzon – the first Ilocano. Together with Laura Latorre Mendoza, a w ...

learned about it, he began appealing to the nuns to give him a Carmel in Lipa. After the Second World War, the Carmelites responded to the invitation. The place given them was the seminary, where a number of Lipeno people had been massacred, because it was the only property in the diocese available at that time. The Carmelite monastery was founded in 1946, and Zialcita was elected prioress.

Apparitions

, daughter of a former governor of Lipa, was born in Quiapo. By the time she entered the Carmel of Lipa, many mystical and unexplained occurrences had already begun. Zialcita eventually heard Castillo's reports that she was being visited by a

devil A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of t ...

and the apparition and requests of a beautiful lady in her cell. After a long observation of these events, she came to believe in the visions of Castillo. Castillo and Zialcita confided everything to their spiritual director, the auxiliary bishop Alfredo Maria Obviar. Zialcita also reportedly became a recipient of

interior locution An interior locution is a mystical concept used by various religions. An interior locution is a form of private revelation, but is distinct from an apparition, or religious vision. An interior locution may be defined as "A supernatural communicati ...

s from the Blessed Virgin Mary, who instructed her how to assist Castillo in fulfilling her requests.

The Verdict in 1951

The apparitions became later known in public through news about miraculous healings, heavy fragrance of roses, the shower of rose petals that bore images of

Jesus 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 ...

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

and religious scenes, the appearance of the blue bird and the spinning sun like what happened in

Fatima Fāṭima bint Muḥammad ( ar, فَاطِمَة ٱبْنَت مُحَمَّد}, 605/15–632 CE), commonly known as Fāṭima al-Zahrāʾ (), was the daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his wife Khadija. Fatima's husband was Ali, th ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

. Initial recognition by the Bishop of Lipa was followed by a subsequent negative final decision. The verdict was signed by a commission composed of one archbishop and five bishops, namely:

Gabriel Reyes Gabriel Martelino Reyes (March 24, 1892 – October 10, 1952) was the 28th archbishop of Manila, and the first native Filipino to hold that post. He previously served as Archbishop of Cebu from 1934 to 1949, and then served as Archbishop of Mani ...

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

, Bp.Cesar Maria Guerrero of

San Fernando San Fernando may refer to: People *Ferdinand III of Castile (c. 1200–1252), called ''San Fernando'' (Spanish) or ''Saint Ferdinand'', King of Castile, León, and Galicia Places Argentina *San Fernando de la Buena Vista, city of Greater Buenos ...

, Mariano Madriaga of

Lingayen Lingayen, officially the Municipality of Lingayen ( pag, Baley na Lingayen; ilo, Ili ti Lingayen; tgl, Bayan ng Lingayen), is a 1st class municipality and capital of the province of Pangasinan, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has ...

Rufino Santos Rufino Jiao Santos (August 26, 1908 – September 3, 1973) was the 29th Archbishop of Manila from February 10, 1953, until his death on September 3, 1973, and was the first Filipino elevated to the rank of cardinal. Biography Born in Barangay St ...

, the newly assigned Apostolic Administrator of

, Vicente Reyes, Auxiliary Bishop of

and Juan Sison, Auxiliary Bishop of Nueva Segovia.

Expulsion

Zialcita was then banished from Lipa along with Sister Mary Anne, the sub-prioress of the Carmel of Lipa, after the negative verdict was issued by the Catholic Church authorities, and she was reduced to the status of as scullery maid.

Later life and death

In February 1982, the

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

Federico Escalar of Ipil gave them a retreat, during which she was released from the ban of silence that had been imposed to her as well as to other witnesses of the apparitions in 1948 by the Apostolic Nunciature

Egidio Vagnozzi Egidio Vagnozzi (26 February 1906 – 26 December 1980) was an Italian cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served as the second president of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See from 1968 until his death, and was elevated to ...

. On 13 December 1982, Zialcita fell from the stairs of Carmel. She suffered a head injury and later died in the night.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cecilia of Jesus, Mary 1908 births 1982 deaths People from Quiapo, Manila Carmelite spirituality Discalced Carmelites Filipino Servants of God Venerated Carmelites 20th-century venerated Christians 20th-century Filipino Roman Catholic nuns