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Very Respectable Mother María Serafina Lemery. Founder and First Superior of the Monastery of the Visitation of Santa María, Salesas de Burgos,1852-1915. ■
In an evening of unforgettable memories and in that memorable Supper during which the Heart of the Redeemer, overflowing with love towards his favorite Disciples, told them: “This is my Body, this is my Blood.” And he added: “In In my Father’s house, there are many mansions.”
One of those, and perhaps not the least, fell as a kind of predilection to the Respectable Sister María Serafina Lemery Ferrer. Who this nun is, what her mission in the Catholic Church is, is what we intend to narrate in these pages. Much is written these days, good and also bad. The more impressive the story, the more current taste. Nothing strident appears in Sister Serafina’s life. Rather, it is the flow of the stream that leaves its source, God, and returns to Him after fertilizing the banks through which it passes. If those waters are calm, an incident can momentarily agitate them—that is not usually lacking in the lives of God’s servants—then they run calmly again, fulfilling their beneficial mission. What is that mission?
Sister María Serafina was gathered in prayer when she suddenly saw before her, among the glare of light and fire, the Most Holy Heart of Jesus: five bloody wounds hurt him and, even more, an enormous thorn deeply stuck in him. She asked the Lord ( or did He ask her?)to found a Convent of the Order of the Visitation in a spirit of reparation. The Omnipotent took as an instrument of his most holy will a still young nun, who, upon burying herself behind the bars of the Monastery, intended, leaving behind her youthful whims, to give herself to the divine demands with no other ambition than to pray and sacrifice herself for the souls. But since God’s designs often differ from those of her creatures, He destined her for the apostolate possible to her sex and condition. He twice took her out of her professional home, taking her away from her family; He surrounded her first with students and later with novices, to whom she was able to transmit her predilection for prayer and her spirit of sacrifice.
With a sickly body – at forty-seven years of age she already looked like an old woman – she had a spirit ready for the practice of good, and a mind ready to undertake sacrifices in favor of those redeemed by Christ, eager to cooperate in whatever possible for the extension of the reign of the Divine Heart of Jesus. In the interest of it was she-
the work, entrusted to her diligent fervor. The cross, said Saint Philip Neri, is an unmistakable sign of God’s love for a soul.
Such an example was not to be missed in the course of Sister María Serafina’s life. We will barely add any details to those we take from her Autobiography written by order of her Director. There are about a thousand pages in quartz, handwritten as if from her time, in small, well-legible script. In these confidences, facts are related, some of which go beyond the ordinary. All of them happened before turning forty years old.
From that time on, her story is recorded in some advice and confidences to her novices, in the account of her “Work of Her” and in numerous letters to her spiritual guide. Even giving credence to what is referred to in those autobiographical pages, it is known from the experience of God’s most favored saints that, since supernatural graces are the effect of the good spirit, THE SOUL THAT RECEIVES THEM, without malice on their part, can , when translating them into poor human language, vitiate them with some species of their own (human); many times it is not enough.
Hence fantasy overexcited by the impression received, something else is said that, without being a lie, surpasses what is received. Something like that could have happened. But when the fact that could be considered supernatural bears the seal of humility, humiliation, of the naive simplicity o someone who only to obey and not be deceived entrusts to a minister of the Lord, what she believes comes from above ; when that same gratified soul recognizes in the sincerity of its con- science that what is received far surpasses the recipient itself, and that upon receiving it, it is neither as she thought, nor as she would like; In that case, what to think? Should we doubt that the sun shines? God is powerful to make the stones children of Abraham.
Furthermore, Catholics have a sure compass: Holy Mother Church, infallible Teacher, to whose judgment we submit in advance with full submission and respect. We will make history with the desire to serve souls of good will, a reading that makes them know what God’s love is for his people, and that if during his mortal career he associates them with the hours of pain of Man- God, all pains, in the end, are mercy and love.
Ara de Holocausto :: Monasterios Visitación de Santa María (monasteriovisitacionburgos.es)
CHAPTER I
DAWN
A Dragoon Regiment under the command of the young Colonel José Lemery was advancing rapidly through the lands of Álava. Upon reaching the end of Baroja, some guerrillas of Infante D. Carlos saw the dragons. It didn’t take long for the two parties to begin hand-to-hand fighting. One of the Pretender’s guerrillas hit Lemery’s chest with such a strong spear that, leaving the steel stuck in him, the shaft was broken. Meanwhile the fight continued, tipping the victory in favor of the Dragons; the faithful assistant took the Chief in his arms, believing him either corpse, and took it to the first house in the town that opened the doors to him. Together with the wounded man they deliberated on the course to take: leaving him as he was was equivalent to death in the short term; removing the embedded spear could result in instant death.
Having recovered his senses, the Colonel had heard the dialogue and, with a quick gesture, he himself tore out the deadly steel. Copious hemorrhage occurred; But once the imminent danger was averted, Lemery once again joined his Regiment, winning laurels of triumph with thirteen other wounds. Shortly after Baroja’s victory, while Lemery was traveling through the province of Guipúzcoa, he met a young woman, almost a child: Flora Ferrer was then fourteen years old. The two sympathized, it was quite an idyll and, since God loved them more than themselves, to sanctify their union he introduced a sensitive test. Here it is important to remember a historical fact. It occurred to D. Baldomero Espartero to facilitate the crossing of the border for the Queen Governor, Doña Cristina de Borbón Nápoles, separating her from her two daughters born to her in her marriage to King Fernando VIL. He made the fact uncomfortable for most of the Army Chiefs. Among them, three of the most distinguished Generals presented themselves in protest to Regent Espartero. The most impulsive of the three, Diego de León, formed the plan to seize the child Queen Doña Isabel II to take her to her mother. When he tried, Colonel Dulce, Chief of the guard that day at the Palacio de Oriente, met him. In a summary trial, Diego de León was declared guilty of lèse majesté and sentenced to be put to death. With the poise with which he commanded his boys through the plains of Biurrun and Belascoain, placed in front of the platoon that would send his soul to the presence of the Just Judge, he gave, with fortitude, the voice of command. Three loves dominated the chest of the brave Diego de León y Navarrete, Count Belascoain: the love of God, the love of the Country and the love of his family. God will have rewarded the good of all of this. In the military spheres, the friendship and understanding of ideas between León and Lemery was known, and the splashes of black revenge that sent the Colonel exiled to England reached him . Lemery was able to say goodbye to Flora, leaving her completely free since her fate was as uncertain as the date of return to the Homeland. Her absence would last nine years. After which, in relative power of command, Queen D. Isabel facilitated the return of the expatriates and, aware of her adhesion to her royal person on the part of Lemery, granted him her trust. The marriage of the Lemery-Ferrer couple was celebrated and shortly after they went to Cuba. He, as General Second Corporal; This is how the Military Governor of Havana was then designated. . And it was delivered to Lemery; It was from the General’s faithful assistant, in Baroja.
They were to be the parents of one of those angelic creatures that in her kindness Providence designated to the intimate confidences of her love despised by men and in charge of repairing, as much as a created being can, the ravings and infidelities. of ungrateful brothers. In the largest of the Antilles and in its capital, a jewel gifted by Providence to the Crown of Castile and which it could not preserve, there is a building of vast proportions, made of ashlars that have faded over the years; Next to the property, a church: Nuestra Señora de Belén. The populous neighborhood next to the most active part of the port bears the same name. When creating the world, the Divine Maker must have thought about making a display of beauty and the port of Havana emerged. When that black blur called “Mendizábal Law” falls on the golden pages of our Homeland history, the pious Belenmitas (founded in Guatemala by D. Pedro de Betancourt, in the 17th century) dedicated to prayer and apostolate , driven out
from their own home, they looked for more hospitable beaches where they could fulfill their mission. The property was used, like other similar buildings, as military offices. The one in question, in addition, became the residence of the General Military Governor of Havana. Years later the Military Government moved to another building closer to the General Captaincy in the Plaza de Armas. In 1870, by donation from Queen Elizabeth II, the Jesuits came into possession of the old Bethlehem.
They reestablished sacred worship in the beautiful church, and opened a 12 1st and 2nd grade school, where several generations of the best in Cuban society received a Christian education. The commercial traffic of the neighborhood and the demands of modern refinement marked the building as outdated for a study house. The Sons of San Ignacio de Loyola built a new school in the expansion of the Capital. Belén is currently waiting for other owners. Who knows if it will become one of the many tobacco factories or a sugar warehouse! Vicissitudes of earthly things!
There on April 7, 1852, the second of the five children of the Catholic Lemery-Ferrer couple was born. With an extremely weak complexion, the girl gave little hope of life. The Most Excellent Bishop of Havana, Dr. Francisco Fleix Solans, made her a daughter of the Church in the same room in which she was born, giving her the names of Manuela Josefa and ten others. When it comes to the baptism of a newborn, how few people stop lying about what that Sacrament entails. He makes us, by God’s free donation, his children and therefore heirs of glory. The Holy Spirit takes possession of that being and enriches it with sanctifying grace, with its Gifts. “Do you not know that you are temples of God, and the temple must be holy”? Saint Paul tells us.
Temple and image of the Creator, it is more beautiful than the one made by the hand of man although it was as beautiful as the Burgos Cathedral which, according to an outstanding archaeologist, boasts the purest and most beautiful pieces of various architectural styles. «But nor – 13 “The stones, nor the lights, nor the flower (said Muñoz y Pabón) give a heartbeat of love.” Man is capable of loving, and his duty is to love his God, who created him for that purpose. The Holy Martyr Leonides kissed with respectful faith the chest of his son Origen, considering it a temple of the Holy Spirit.
Two months counted Manolita, as she was called, when the Lamery family undertook the then annoying trip back to the Peninsula and the General changed command of the Military Government of Havana for that of Vizcaya. While touring the territory entrusted to him, the General noticed the absence of the Mayor of a certain town, asking the reason for his absence. The case was made to declare it: the absentee was precisely the lancer who left Lemery wounded in Baroja. He smiled and when he saw the Basque approaching with the red beret in his hand, the Marquis affably came forward, offering him his own as a sign of Christian friendship, while congratulating the adversary of yesteryear, not so much for being the first local authority, but rather for being the first local authority. how much for being a skilled spearman. Plora Ferrer was not inferior to her husband. To her honor she descended through a direct line from the Valencian miracle worker San Vicente Ferrer.
She is an exemplary wife, a mother in all the force of expression, pious and austere. If, due to her social position, she was forced to take part in palace parties, she hid sharp hair shirts under her elegant attire; And in relation to charity with the needy, there was an occasion when, as the income did not reach what she wanted, she sold her best diamonds, replacing them with rock crystal. Pious fraud discovered after her early death. The girl was raised so weak that she became the concern of her mother. She already had two children in heaven, and fearing that a third would go, she took extreme care of her. It seems that they were not very successful, since the little girl became hungry on more than one occasion, creating difficulties in feeding her for the rest of her life. Otherwise her childhood was normal. The hagiographers of past centuries tell us about this or that hero of holiness, who from the cradle fasted and mortified themselves voluntarily. Manolita was like any other son of Adam, vain in the face of any ornament, like the other daughters of Eve; she is vehement to the extreme and she will be so even after scaling the peaks of spiritual life. Sensitive and impressionable like few of her: it was enough for her father to tell her: “Manolita, cry” for the tears to overflow instantly. The third defect from which she was cured, to the point of doubting whether it was true that she had it, was her bad temper. And the fourth, the scruples, which appeared from time to time throughout her painful existence.
We are in the chapter of her guilt. She seems to have started to have whims outside de tone and signs of irascible character; This is attested to by the Autobiography. It is not a unique case. Saint Francis de Sales was naturally choleric, one of those who feels the blood boiling in his head. Years later Saint Vincent de Paul said of him: “How good God must be, when Monsignor of Geneva is so meek”! fifteen Whatever it was, there must have been something. What daughter of Eve is there without defects? Manolita at four years old and even at five, she wanted to impose her own opinion, she reached the point of stubbornness, declaiming with a powerful voice. The mother, an exemplary educator, enemy of violent procedures, if she did not soon manage to restore order regarding whims and rebellions, would send the girl, accompanied by a former housekeeper, to the next Parish of San Martín, in Madrid, and kneeling before a painting of Saint Mary Magdalene Penitent, the punished woman had to apologize for her tantrum. There Manolita cried for her loss, until she, momentarily repentant and ashamed, returned to her house; She was amazed, then, that they did not dress her in an esparto sack like the one that appeared in the painting of Magdalo’s penitent. Happy years those that would not last long.
CHAPTER II
Omens
Short in stature, General Narváez, Duke of Valencia, was long in hand. During his years of government, political disturbances were frequent. D. Ramón Narváez ordered the sandblasting of the central streets of Villa y Corte, and he had squadrons of cavalry parade through it. At trot, swing left and right; The avenues were clear, silent and order was restored. The “sword of Loja” as Narváez was called, required someone to second him. Lemery also had a strong hand, courage and military tactics and was in the prime of life. (He was 46 years old). Head of the Military Quarter of the King consort Don Francisco de Asís, he was highly esteemed by the royal family. He was not an armchair soldier to show off the wounds he earned at the age of 28 and the crosses—even the Laureate—for the blood shed in fourteen wounds in the service of the Fatherland. The Duke of Valencia set his sights on him and named him Captain General of Madrid. The Lemery House was overflowing with family and friends congratulating such a timely appointment.
The new Captain General, as good a Catholic as he was an excellent strategist, always showed himself to be kind, gallant, and an admirer of the beautiful clothes of the incomparable companion that heaven gave him. In 1858, Flora had practiced the holy Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. Would she have been impressed by meditating on the Eternal Truths? The truth is that she formulated and left written resolutions like those for the most fervent nun. (Those pages are preserved in the Archive of the Salesas Convent of Burgos). Upon taking command of the General Captaincy of Madrid, Lemery wanted his wife to choose a certain ornament. For what, Pepe? He answered, “I shouldn’t wear it for the first time.” Little time has passed since such a scene. The family is dismayed, the service whispers in their comings and goings: the lady is dying, what a shame, so young, only 32 years old! and… the three girls of which the last one, who had the Queen as godmother who gave her her name, Isabel, is in her crib.
As for Manolita, she has heard about the gesture of Teresa de Ahumada in a similar case, and is filled with pain at the misfortune that is coming upon her, and that her six poorly counted years cannot sufficiently understand, prostrating herself before an image of the Blessed Virgin. Virgin, she begs that when she loses a mother, from now on, she, the Lady, will be her Mother and protect her under her mantle. And she adds to her Autobiography: “The Mother of Mercy was for me, and on difficult occasions I have felt her protection clearly evident.”
One of Flora’s last recommendations to her husband was not to entrust the girls to foreign teachers, fearing that one of them who was not very pious would separate her daughters from the religious feelings she had instilled. In order to fulfill her mother’s wish, Lemery placed the two older girls as half-boarders in a nuns’ school. He, in person, took them in the mornings before the time when his military duties called for him, and at the end of the afternoon he returned them home, making sure that his favorite classmates deserved full trust. That bizarre soldier solicitously guarded the flower of innocence in the daughters that the Lord entrusted to him. A writer has said that children without a mother are flowers without the sun. Manolita was a hothouse flower, whose corolla, opening to the care of an exemplary father, was able to bear seasoned fruits. The Military Code governed the family. First of all God, then obedience. Years later, Sister María Serafina would write: “My father educated us as if we were boys,” that is, virilely. No more tantrums and unreasonable whims. A paternal look was enough to impose order and the schoolgirl became, with the use of reason awakened, a model of good behavior, as well as in application to study. Her faults were only the escapades that she made, as much as she could, to visit the Blessed Sacrament reserved in the chapel. What was the girl doing there?
A few words that came from her heart and then what the villager from Ars said: 19 “He looks at me and I look at him.” The thing is that the white dove, with a golden beak, whispered, in the depths of that childish soul, I don’t know what mystery that she still didn’t know how to define: «My vocation to religious life (she will write), was neither a precise nor a calling. for a moment.” In past times the act of First Communion was not clothed with so much external pomp. Those more or less unsightly angels accompanying the communicant were not in style, nor other fantasies more appropriate to distract the imagination of children, much less those “Kodak” focused on them to surprise them at all times and form the movie (1). Manolita did not lack good religious instruction to prepare her for her first encounter with Jesus in the Eucharist, on the festival of her Ascension, May 4, 1863. Her Autobiography (page 15) points out an incident that disturbed the happiness of such ceremony. The day before the girl heardto her older sister, talking with a friend, something frivolous, not sinful, that distracted her from the thoughts suggested in the fervent triduum ended a few hours before. The next day, after the First Communion, remembering the conversation the day before, she reproached herself for her behavior and the lack of proper preparation for such an important act. Her delicate conscience, perhaps taken to its extreme, caused her to spend very bitter hours, and to increase her pain, she did not confide her scruples to anyone in the house. This is how she spent the day that could have been one of the happiest of her life. (
How few complete joys are enjoyed in this miserable land! It is not said in the Autobiography how the sky of that soul was calmed. The truth was that with the fear of having displeased God Our Lord, he allowed himself to be invaded by sadness, resulting in a serious illness: “The same love that I had for Our Lord increased my suffering.” The reason for his sorrow is well stated: I had her in love. They add the intimate notes: “I felt the presence of God, along with the desire to suffer and surrender.” Brief, but precise definition of what life will be like. At such a young age, 11 years old, barely realizing what is happening to her, or where she is being taken, she declares the sensitive experience of God’s indwelling in the sanctuary of her soul. When the divine Artificer does filigree work on a chosen heart, he adorns it with the gentle anointing of grace of predilection and favors it with the means appropriate to the realization of his plans. “I wanted to be a victim,” adds the little girl, “but I didn’t really know what that was or how I should do it.” “All my desire was for retreat and prayer.” We already have the outline of the call to contemplative ways: silence, prayer, sacrifice; triple characteristic. Whoever suggested such aspirations will point out the way of delivery; The path will be after a long wait, with a momentary deviation. We all have a bad quarter of an hour in life; If it doesn’t go any further, let’s be happy. Manolita’s will serve to humiliate himself. “Everything turns out to be good for the lovers of God,” the Apostle tells us.
The young woman becomes peaceful, conciliatory, she gives the sensation of mastery over her natural inclinations, there is assiduous work against the imperfect, and she has not yet received the Sacrament that arms us as brave soldiers of Christ. She only explains the fact that she did not receive Confirmation before she was 14, thinking that in Madrid there was no Prelate of her own at that time; It depended on the Archdiocese of Toledo; and the Primate on his trips to the Villa and Court would take other time-consuming urgent matters to spend in that Sacrament. The wait was the cause of a more convenient preparation for the reception of the Holy Spirit. A pious Missionary Bishop brought her the desired Sacrament, placing her at the same time under the special protection of the enlightened Florentine virgin, Saint Magdalene of Pazzis. Manolita soon left school and in her house he completed, with competent teachers, her vast literary training. It was not yet common among young women to frequent university classrooms where more than one, with the science that inspires them, learn what they need to know.
If all parents knew what that word entails and watched their children, how many fewer sins would be committed in today’s society! Manolita had intellectual capacity. She pursued studies superior to those that young women of her social position received in the last century.
One eve of the feast of Saint Joseph, March 19, brought a new storm of scruples to a conscience that has not yet fully formed, and they will not be the last. Nothing more natural than her daughter would want to celebrate her father’s saint by taking communion to pray. 22 blessings in her favor. She was also devoted to the saint of whom Saint Teresa of Jesus says: “Years ago, each one of us asked him for something in his day and I always saw it fulfilled. If her request goes a little crooked, he straightens it for my better good. As there were many people to confess to the Jesuit Father who knew her intimately, Manolita went to the confessional occupied by an unknown priest. After the accusation of the faults, which she believed she had found in diligent examination, she asked that man if she had no more, denying her absolution for lack of matter according to him. The shy girl was disturbed, the priest added: Have you not committed such a thing? naming one of them that she, he did not understand her and remained silent, interpreting it as a sign of shame. Distressed by the inexperienced young woman, faced with the refusal of absolution and the prospect of being left without communion, she finally said: “that perhaps she had done that.” Once she was acquitted, she went to receive the Holy Communion, without realizing that she had done wrong. She barely received Our Lord in the
White Host, reflecting on the recent adventure, the idea of having committed a sacrilege put her in a whirlwind of ideas, each more likely to torture the conscience. Instead of celebrating, he spent a day of agony until the next day when the Jesuit Father, who knew how pure his soul was, after clarifying the event, restored his peace. “I have suffered a lot,” the report adds, “anything seemed like a sin to me, it was good that when I said it to the Father I remained calm and obeyed.” If those infected with the pernicious evil of scruples did the same, the confessor would not waste time and they, by submitting to his judgment, would suffer less and gain more. “Sustained scruples have their roots very damaged by pride.” Does the word sting? Well, perfume it with your very gentle saying, the Doctor of affability, his is the phrase. (Spirit of Saint Francis de Sales, by Mons. Camus Volume 1.*).
CHAPTER III
BETWEEN TWO WATERS
Manolita Lemery, very young, almost a child, (we already hinted) felt a first call towards perfection. Virginal soul, she experienced the need to sacrifice herself and sacrifice is proper to keep the heart pure. There was a marked attraction in her to retreat, not to be left alone. “I will take the soul to solitude and there I will speak to the heart,” the Lord tells us through the Prophet Hosea. To deal with God, external silence is good; even more so the interior. All contemplatives have coveted it. God rarely communicates in the noise, he prefers to share intimate confidences with him “in the pleasant secluded garden”, as Saint John of the Cross sang. Better than at school, Manolita was able to spend long periods of time at her parents’ house dealing with God. She once confided to a friend as inexperienced as herself about her nascent inclination toward a life of retirement and penance. The confidant of a Community of Discalced Carmelites spoke to her, offering to introduce her to the Prioress.
Manolita did not wait for the time of the proposed visit (she is already showing the vehement temperament that she will not get rid of even when she reaches the end of her life). Prompt and determined, she wrote to the Carmelite Convent requesting admission, meriting at the age of 14 less than average health, with a will determined to do everything, even to escape without her paternal permission. Youth, more than inexperienced, tend to be impulsive. Did the good Priora take the demand as youthful reveries? The truth was that she didn’t even answer. But if they don’t want her Carmelita, she will be a Sister of Charity. The white headdresses of the Daughters of Saint Vincent are so suggestive! She will have to wait a few years and unjustified delays can chill very sincere aspirations. Poor pigeon! How much she will later regret her infidelities to the Love that requests her! Nearly ten years of waiting with a turn that could have cost him dearly. Hers Angel Her Custodian must have spread her wings very wide to protect her. The difficult time of introduction to society arrived, and the fervor thermometer read little less than zero. During the years of Manolita’s youth, the customs of Madrid’s high society differed not a little from those of today.
The Spanish woman was the first to respect her own dignity. In the middle of the last 19th century it would have been scandalous to see a young woman on the street alone on the arm of a boy, whoever he was; necklines were worn in theaters and salons, but they did not even reach much, to the current ones. And we do not want to mention other fashions and freedoms of “good manners” in the current era. It remains to be seen whether that “tone” will sound good before the court of the just Judge. Also in the last century the devil took advantage of foolish fashion. Vanity suggests the female sex of all times and how many white butterflies burn their wings next to sinister lights! When Manolita, accompanied by her father and her mother’s aunts and sisters, began to frequent the salons, it was all dances, parties, galas, and even a black butterfly got in the way of that hubbub of honest amusements—of course—all at the same time. view of the honorable General Lemery. But that other suitor who does not force wills delicately hinted: “If you want”… and was snubbed for the moment. He did not stray far: he peered, waited patiently, he loved so much the one he had rescued at the price of blood! He was willing to associate her with him as a companion of pain and crucified wife, and since He is the Owner, he would triumph in the suit. These events occurred between Manolita’s eighteen and twenty years of age. The suitor for his hand was commendable in several respects. Party coveted by mothers ambitious for the happiness of marriageable daughters. Lemery took the cake. She was charming, like a porcelain figurine in a display case. Less than medium height, fine, correct features, barely rosy white complexion, no paints, he didn’t need them. A somewhat aquiline nose, bright blue eyes (myopia obscured them later); mouth with a smiling expression, accentuated golden hair, very much in the style of the time: those who didn’t have it that way dyed it that color. In short, she was pretty.
The descendants of the Marquis of Baroja preserve an oil portrait of Manolita Lemery at the age of eighteen. In the archives of the Visitation of Burgos there is a smaller copy. Paint how you want. Yes, it looks like the original, but not completely. We repeat that in her youth she must have been what is called pretty without becoming a beauty; Already in mature age and despite so much physical and moral suffering, her face was pleasant and her soul characteristic was exquisite in goodness. Add her intelligence awakened from her, vast instruction, fluent speech. In short, Manolita did not play a bad role and in the face of the siren’s flattery, amidst fear and shame, she was on the verge of committing to a “yes” that would have chained her. The two families, happy, hoped to see their projects come to fruition. A struggle began between that first attraction of consecration to God and the feared “yes” to a man, who would have taken her where she did not want. There was a force that prevented him from going down a slippery slope where the roses of one day hide a thousand thorns; We call this hidden force in common language: the religious vocation. How many times did the disoriented young woman remember the effects that in past months her prayer, the friendship with the Lord, that St. Teresa says, had on her soul; but at present, she gave in to the voice of the deceiving siren, it is not a unique story, how many souls momentarily lose the straight path until the merciful Lord extends his hand to them leading them there He wants them!
This happened with Manolita. Providence took advantage of the political disturbances that occurred in Spain at that time. Divine Wisdom brings out goods from which mortals find evil. We know that God fulfills his plans and is glorified in everything. Our country was going through difficult times at that time. Once Queen Elizabeth II was dethroned, the rioters, masters of the situation, established an ephemeral republic, – it seems that we Spaniards were not made for such a government regime: the word republic is synonymous with disorder in Spain. After the attempt by General Prim, Count of Reus, failed, the radicals, disguised as monarchists, went to Piedmont in search of a toy for their ambitions, while bothering those addicted to the Pope King. The interference of Don Amadeo of Savoy on the throne of San Fernando lasted barely a year, when the goddess Republic was installed again in Madrid, with no better luck than the previous one, until General Martínez Campos, before the wounded army, After so much fratricidal fighting, he proclaimed the young Prince D. Alfonso de Borbón y Borbón King of Spain in Sagunto. General Lemery had always remained attached to the Bourbon dynasty, to which he owed, like his ancestors, repeated displays of distinction and trust. He was a soldier by vocation, politics did not enter into his vision. Powerless to put a stop to the confusion of ideas then reigning, his person and even more his honor exposed, like others from palatial families, he thought it appropriate to temporarily leave the country, retiring with his daughters to France, soon to repatriate as soon as they claim their sword in the service of a noble cause.
After this historical parenthesis that links the events, let’s see what Manolita Lemery did in Bayonne. While the two families, her own and that of her suitor, Baron de M., wanted to activate the wedding preparations, the girl did not decide. She tells in her memoirs that if she agreed at the beginning, she was driven by the desire to do good to a frivolous soul. There are so many of these! She wanted to bring her closer to God while keeping the other idea fixed: “I will never be anything but God’s,” and she repeated it to herself over and over again. The popular couplet says: “absence is air that puts out the small fire.” and light the big one.” And since in Manolita the flame was small and the difference in aspirations not small, the air of absence blew and that will-o’-the-wisp went out. There was another greater reason; we will see it. We must say in honor of the truth that Baron de M., seeing the time that had passed and that Manuela did not decide to take the decision seriously, began to relax his claim. Thus there was grounds for the final break. Upon learning of the girl’s religious vocation, the Baron reiterated her intention, but the negative response was emphatic. Already religious, María Serafina was visiting her sister, the Countess of Caudilla, when the Baron de M. happened to pass by that parlour, to see her sister Leonor, her religious sister there. my Convent. Complying with a custom of the Order, Sr. María Serafina, upon seeing who was passing, lowered the veil that was supposed to cover her eyes and naturally continued the conversation.
Manolita was ill in Bayonne, France to the point that the doctors considered the case hopeless. Her fever left her lifeless, speechless; She realized her serious condition and entrusted her to the Mother of goodness, to whom when she became an orphan she asked for her Mother, she begged her to grant her the favor. to receive the holy sacraments before dying. Suddenly, she seemed to see next to her bed the heavenly Queen of Mercies with her Divine Son on her right arm and, looking at her with tenderness, she said: “Do not be afraid, you will be my son’s wife”. The apparition stopped. Fever delirium? Imagination? Whatever you think. Since then, the interested woman became especially fond of the Virgin of Carmen, insistently searching for an image of her with the Child on her right arm. Of these facts, not so much the thing must be considered as the effects. The sick woman came back to life; relatively responsive, she undertook fervent ascensions; She asked God for forgiveness for what she would detest for the rest of her years, and with the never forgotten promise of her Mother and consoler, repeating to herself that phrase “I will never be anything but God’s,” she begged her father to take her to Bordeaux to meet with the Visitor of the Sisters of Charity and request admission into the Congregation.