New cloistered nun in Vitoria
The neo-Gothic temple located on Paseo de la Universidad hosts today, the last Sunday of October, a special celebration. A novice of the religious community of the Salesian Sisters will take a step in her vocation to religious life.
At 6:00 p.m., the solemn profession ceremony will begin in which a 35-year-old girl will permanently take her habits. Sister María Cecilia, after 9 years of training and having successfully passed the steps established by canon law and the statutes of the Order of the Visitation of Saint Mary, will become a Salesian nun.
The mass will be presided over by Juan Carlos Elizalde, Bishop of Vitoria and with the presence of several diocesan priests and the Episcopal Vicar responsible for Consecrated Life, Manuel Gómez-Tavira.
Accompanied by her family and the voices of the Araba Choir, María Cecilia will be seated in
the main altar of the temple escorted to her left by the Mother Superior, Sister Angelica,
and to her right by the Mistress of Novices, Sister Ana María.
Before the Bishop’s homily, he will maintain a public dialogue with the candidate, which at the end will present her with the habit of the Salesian nuns –black and white–, the pectoral crucifix that they all carry and a lighted candle as a symbol of faith. . After this moment, the recently invested Salesian nun, accompanied by the Superior and the person in charge of the candidates, will go to the closing ceremony with the rest of the Sisters.
This Visitation Order, popularly known as the Salesas, is a community of contemplative life. It was founded by Saint Francis de Sales and Saint Juana de Chantal in France in 1610. The first nuns who settled in Vitoria arrived with the construction of this Monastery in 1885, erecting this building in the style of ancient European monasteries with its long corridors and multiple chapels.
According to its founding Statutes, its members follow the “vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, with a spirit of deep humility towards the Lord and gentleness towards others.” With this incorporation there are 20 nuns who guard this Vitoria Visitation Monastery, one of the 18 monasteries that this Order has in Spain and the only one in the Basque Country.
For photos see Source: Nueva monja de clausura en Vitoria – Norte Exprés | Noticias de Vitoria-Gasteiz y Álava. (nortexpres.com)