For several years this website has been interested in the book UNA VISITANDINA EJEMPLAR
about a Spanish Superior, Mother Maria Alacoque Muntadas. She was an author of several spiritual books Now excerpts of her life have been published in the newspaper Religion et Libertad, and we will translate this here.
Source and photos: An exemplary visitandin (1) – ReL (religionenlibertad.com)
Part 0ne
Since April 14, 1931, when the republic was implanted in Spain, public order went incessantly from bad to worse, since the entire nation was the plaything of Freemasons , socialists, anarchists, syndicalists and Marxists. Within a month of its violent implementation, the fires of churches and religious houses began, especially in Madrid, Malaga and many other cities. Religious of both sexes, priests, and even good lay Catholics were everywhere persecuted and humiliated by the populace, fanaticized by a sectarian, corrupt, and venal press, without the public authorities, equally sectarian and impious, putting an end to such vexations and excesses; on the contrary, they more or less covertly encouraged them… However, the external public order was not seriously altered by fires and murders in Barcelona or in all of Catalonia, with the exception of the attempt at a Catalan republic on October 7, 1934, which was energetically repressed by General Batet. There was, however, a very rough and rough sea throughout the Catalan Principality, as well as in the rest of the nation, which was stumbling and somersaulting towards the abyss.
Such was the situation in Spain in mid-1935 and early 1936, when Mother Maria Alacoque Muntadas was re-elected again for Superior. It is true that the community enjoyed relative peace and tranquility, rather apparent than real, as indicated by the following letter written by Mother Maria Alacoque Muntadas at the beginning of June 1936:
“Now in a special way I have you very present when I know what is happening there and what you will be suffering. How much we must love Jesus today and how much we must make reparation for his offenses to the souls who belong to him in a special way! How much, how much we must see to it that it finds in our hearts an oasis, a heaven of love and repose in the midst of the world… Do you not think, dear N., that everything must seem to us little, nothing, even the greatest sacrifices for it? Certainly! And on this, we leave in the inkwell how much we could tell you about what we have said and that you read without the need for letters. Here, thank God, we are calm, in spite of everything, because there is a great effort to maintain public order so that, given what is happening elsewhere, we are much better off, thus recovering the reputation that Catalonia currently had, not good, by the way. You know this well. We will see how long it will last, since the storm is raging and the storm is general, and what will happen? God alone has the secret of it. We deserve so much purification, even those of us who call ourselves good… What about your health, what do you tell me? With so many impressions, scares… with such bad times… None of this is proper to put a sick heart well and that loves the One who sees that he is not loved, right? As for me, I’m pretty well, better than usual. You see, like weeds…”
Sad, indeed, were the times and an inexpressible uneasiness oppressed hearts, seeing our poor country roll from abyss to abyss. What days those were… who doesn’t remember them?
Mother Alacoque, as was her duty, took her measures and omitted nothing from what was within her reach, to put her daughters in safety, in case something serious should happen, seeking in all her determinations the light of heaven and casting her cares, which were many, on God, without altering her peace in the least; so firmly established in God was it!
An atmosphere of greater prayer, of silence and mortification or spirit of penance caused him to reign in the house to do violence to heaven, and his recommendations to give themselves truly to holiness, became more and more pressing…
After the disastrous elections of February 1936, her worries and anxieties increased. She was greatly reassured on this point by an unexpected visit from our holy Prelate, Doctor Irurita, of holy memory. What a weight it has lifted off my shoulders, she said, “how good God is!
Thus we arrive at July. The Mother had been ill with a very acute rheumatism, which hardly allowed her to move, and of which she said, at the foot of a letter written by her secretary: “Daughters exaggerate; what I have is the evil of the rich…”
A few days before the Glorious Movement, one afternoon, before Compline, the community went to her room to give her their blessing, for she still needed to go to bed early. She was sitting at her little work-table, and she brought them very close to her, so that they were crowded around her.
“My sisters,” she told them, “I feel that the time has come for the great purifications, for the great immolations for Spain… Spain needs to purify itself…, everyone needs it; so do we. It’s not that I’ve had any revelations, no, but we’re in some very solemn moments… very serious… It looks like there’s going to be an uprising; they say that we should be calm, that this time it is not against the Religious Communities. But, my sisters, let us be prepared for anything… Yes, to all the sacrifices and all the spoils. To martyrdom perhaps, who knows what the Lord will ask of us?
“But do not be afraid,”she added; trust in God and great fidelity, fidelity to every trial and great generosity. Let us refuse nothing to his love and God will not abandon us.”
Later, a sister having approached her to say something unimportant, in a somewhat serious tone she said:
“Stop the nonsense, haven’t you heard me? Prayer, prayer and sacrifice. Great fidelity.”
In the meantime she finalized her dispositions, providing everything in case the community had to disperse. The following Saturday, the 18th, she had a Chapter, as usual, exhorting her to trust, but repeating forcefully that they should be prepared for everything, and that they should remain very faithful and generous…
And the disastrous 19th of July dawned for Barcelona…
