María Angélica Pérez (

religious name A religious name is a type of given name bestowed for religious purposes, and which is generally used in such contexts. Christianity Catholic Church Baptismal name In baptism, Catholic Church, Catholics are given a Christian name, which should n ...

María Crescentia, 17 August 1897 – 20 May 1932) was an Argentine

religious sister A religious sister (abbreviated: Sr.) 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 prayer and ...

of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Garden. She also was known to ill people as "Sister sweetness". She was beatified on 17 November 2012 in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

Life

María Angélica Pérez was born on 17 August 1897 in

to Spanish immigrants Augustín Pérez and Ema Rodriguez as the fifth of eleven children. Among all her siblings there were four brothers and two sisters. She was raised on a farm and helped her father with work around the farm. She was a pious child, known for her devotion to the faith. Four siblings before her who died in childhood were born while living in Uruguay. Pérez entered the

congregation Congregation may refer to: Religion *Church (congregation), a religious organization that meets in a particular location *Congregation (Roman Curia), an administrative body of the Catholic Church *Religious congregation, a type of religious instit ...

of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Gardenon 31 December 1915 and received the

habit A habit (or wont, as a humorous and formal term) is a routine of behavior that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously. A 1903 paper in the '' American Journal of Psychology'' defined a "habit, from the standpoint of psychology, ...

on 2 September 1916; she assumed religious name ''María Crescentia''. On 7 September 1918 she made her vows. She served as both a teacher and a catechist to children and from 1924 to 1928 worked in a hospital tending to patients afflicted with

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

and also sick children. She was sent to

Mar del Plata Mar del Plata is a city on the coast of the Argentine Sea, Atlantic Ocean, in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is the seat of General Pueyrredón Partido, General Pueyrredón district. Mar del Plata is the second largest city in Buenos Aires ...

in 1925 to care for the ill and was infected with

lung disease The lungs are the primary organs of the respiratory system in many animals, including humans. In mammals and most other tetrapods, two lungs are located near the backbone on either side of the heart. Their function in the respiratory syst ...

and so arrangements were moved for her to be transferred to a change of environment. As her health declined she was assigned to a hospital in

Vallenar Vallenar is a city and commune in Atacama Region, Chile. It is the capital of the Huasco Province and is located in the valley of the Huasco River. Vallenar has 52,000 inhabitants. Its main activities are farming and mining. It was founded as ...

in Chile in 1928 and was perceived as a source of happiness and comfort to the patients. Pérez died in 1932 in hospital. In 1966, her

relics In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains or personal effects of a saint or other person preserved for the purpose of veneration as a tangible memorial. Reli ...

were found to be

incorrupt Incorruptibility is a Catholic and Orthodox belief that divine intervention allows some human bodies (specifically saints and beati) to completely or partially avoid the normal process of decomposition after death as a sign of their holiness. I ...

upon inspection and were taken to Quillata. She was reinterred in the college chapel in Huerto de Pergamino in her homeland of Argentina on 26 July 1986.

Beatification

The beatification process commenced in a diocesan process on 30 June 1987 in which those involved were required to investigate Pérez's life and her personal holiness. The process also saw the accumulation of documentation pertaining to her life and later closed on 3 October 1989. This process took place despite the fact that 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, passi ...

did not grant their formal approval to the initiation of the cause until 5 December 1989 - this conferred upon her the title of

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 ...

. The process was deemed to have completed its work according to the set criteria in 1993 which allowed for the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to begin their own line of investigation into the cause. The postulation submitted the ''

positio A ''positio'' (short for the Latin ''positio super virtutibus'': "position on the virtues") is a document or collection of documents used in the process by which a Catholic person is declared Venerable, the second of four steps on the path to can ...

'' to

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

in 1997. On 22 June 2004 she was proclaimed to be

venerable ''The Venerable'' often shortened to Venerable is a style, title, or epithet used in some Christianity, Christian churches. The title is often accorded to holy persons for their spiritual perfection and wisdom. Catholic In the Catholic Churc ...

after

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

acknowledged the fact that Pérez had lived a life of

heroic virtue Heroic virtue is the translation of a phrase coined by Augustine of Hippo to describe the virtue of early Christian martyrs. The phrase is used by the Roman Catholic Church. The Greek pagan term hero described a person with possibly superhuman a ...

. A miracle due to her intercession was investigated in the diocese of its origin from 25 August 1999 until 20 April 2000; it received the validation of Roman officials on 16 November 2001 and could thus proceed to the following stages of investigation. On 19 December 2011

Pope Benedict XVI Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as p ...

approved the 1995 healing of María Sara Pane from Hepatitis-A. Pérez' beatification was celebrated in Buenos Aires on 17 November 2012 and Cardinal

Angelo Amato Angelo Amato, Salesians of Don Bosco, S.D.B. (8 June 1938 – 31 December 2024) was an Italian Cardinal (Catholic Church), cardinal of the Catholic Church who served as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints between 2008 and 20 ...

presided over it on the behalf of Benedict XVI. The

postulator A postulator is the person who guides a cause for beatification or canonization through the judicial processes required by the Catholic Church. The qualifications, role and function of the postulator are spelled out in the ''Norms to be Observed i ...

of the cause is Enrico Venanzi.

References

External links

Hagiography CircleSaints SQPNSister Cresencia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Perez, Maria Angelica 1897 births 1932 deaths 20th-century venerated Christians 20th-century Argentine people Beatifications by Pope Benedict XVI Argentine beatified people 20th-century Argentine Roman Catholic nuns Deaths from lung disease People from Buenos Aires Venerated Catholics by Pope John Paul II