Category: Women

Helena Stollenwerk was born on November 28, 1852, to Hans Peter Stollenwerk and his third wife Anna Bongard She had one sister, Caroline. Her Father died with she was just seven years old.  Her mother remarried the following year to a man with three daughters from a previous marriage.  The youngest daughter became a very close friend to Helena. 

As a child, she dreamed of going on mission trips to China.  She tried to find a convent that sent missionaries around the world, but she was not able to find one.  

In 1882 she met Arnold Janssen, who was in the Netherlands at the time.  He encouraged her idea of beginning a new religious group for women.  For a time she served at Janssen’s St. Michael the Archangel Mission House.  In 1884, she was joined by Hendrina Stenmanns.

On December 8, 1889, Stollenwerk became of postulant of a women’s congregation began by Janssen, the Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit.  She made her vows on March 12, 1894.  She became abbess of the congregation on August 12, 1898.

Stollenwerk helped prepare sisters that went out on missions around the world.  She sent the first missionaries to Argentina in 1895.  She other missionaries to Togo in 1897. Janssen’s asked her to resign from being Superior General.  She had been in that position for 8 years.

In the fall of 1899,  she was diagnosed with meningitis. She died in 1900.  Her final words were “Jesus: I die for You.”

Her cause for sainthood became in 1950 in Roermond, the collection of documents and interviews about her life.   The miracle required for her beatification occurred in 1962.  Her writings received approval in 1983 from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. On April 2, 1982, Stollenwerk was titled a Servant of God. Pope John Paul I confirmed her life of heroic virtue and name Stollenwerk as being Venerable on 14 May 14, 1991.  The miracle from 1962 was investigated and was approved as a medical miracle on November 26, 1993.  Pope John Paul II approved the miracle as well and on May 7, 1995, beatified Stollenwerk.  The current postulator for this cause is Sister Ortrud Stegmaier.

Marie Bernarde Soubirous born Janary 7, 1844.  She was the daughter of François Soubirous a miller, and Louise, a laundress. She was the oldest of nine children. She was baptized at the local parish church on January 9, her parents’ wedding anniversary. Her family was extremely poor economic conditions in France.  She was sick as a child, which may have caused her to not fully grow.  She was only 4 foot 7 inches tall.  She got cholera when she was small and had asthma her whole life.  Soubirous attended the day school conducted by the Sisters of Charity and Christian Instruction from Nevers. She spoke very little French, she didn’t begin to study until she was 13.  She could barely read or write because she was ill so often.  Instead, she spoke Occitan, the language of her region.
Bernadette’s family was so poor they were living in a one-room basement, formerly used as a jail. On February 11, 1858, Bernadette was 14. She was out gathering firewood with her sister and a friend near a small cave, called a grotto.  Bernadette had a vision.  While the other girls crossed a little stream in front of the grotto and walked on.  Bernadette stayed behind looking for a place where she wouldn’t get wet.  She finally sat down to take off her shoes to cross the stream.  When she heard the sound of rushing wind, nothing was moving, except a wild rose in a small crevice. Behind the crevice was a dark alcove.  There was a bright white light and a white figure.  This was the first of 18 visions of what she thought was a small young lady.  But Bernadette’s sister and a friend hadn’t seen it.   

On February 14, after Sunday Mass, Bernadette, her sister, and some other girls went back to the grotto. Bernadette knelt down immediately, saying she saw the apparition again. When one of the girls threw holy water at the niche and another threw a rock from above that shattered on the ground, the apparition disappeared. On her next visit, February 18, Bernadette said the vision asked her to return to the grotto every day for a fortnight.  A fortnight is two weeks.

Almost every day for these two weeks, now called the “holy fortnight”, the vision appeared.   Initially, Bernadette’s parents, especially her mother, were embarrassed.  They tried to forbid her to go. The apparition did not identify herself until the seventeenth vision. Although the townspeople who believed she was telling the truth assumed she saw the Virgin Mary, Bernadette never claimed it to be Mary. She described the lady as wearing a white veil, a blue girdle, and with a yellow rose on each foot, similar to the statue of the Virgin in any village church.

Bernadette’s story caused a sensation with the townspeople, who were divided in their opinions on whether or not she was telling the truth. Some believed her to have a mental illness and demanded she be put in an asylum. The others thought Bernadette’s visions were simple and focused on the need for prayer and penance. On February 25she explained that the vision had told her to drink the water of the spring, to wash in it, and to eat the herb that grew there, as an act of penance. To everyone’s surprise, the next day the grotto was no longer muddy but clear water flowed. On March 2, at the thirteenth vision, Bernadette told her family that the lady said that “a chapel should be built and a procession formed”.

On March 25, Bernadette’s 16th vision happened for over an hour.  During that vision, she asked the woman her name, but the lady just smiled back.  She asked three more times, finally the lady said, “I am the Immaculate Conception”  Even though she was interrogated by officials of both the Catholic Church and the French government, she stuck to her story.

After investigation, Catholic Church authorities confirmed the authenticity of the apparitions in 1862. In the 160 years since Bernette dug up the spring, 70 cures have been verified by the Lourdes Medical Bureau as “inexplicable”.  The Catholic Church thoroughly investigates each claim with “extremely rigorous scientific and medical examinations”.  These claims have failed to find any other explanation.
The Lourdes Commission that examined Bernadette after the visions ran an intensive analysis on the water and found that, while it had a high mineral content, it contained nothing out of the ordinary that would account for the cures attributed to it. Bernadette said that it was faith and prayer that cured the sick: “One must have faith and pray; the water will have no virtue without faith”.

Soubirous’s request to the local priest to build a chapel at the site of her visions eventually caused a number of chapels and churches to be built at Lourdes. The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes is now one of the major Catholic pilgrimage sites in the world. One of the churches built at the site, the Basilica of St. Pius X, can accommodate 25,000 people and was dedicated by Pope John XXIII when he was the Papal Nuncio to France. Close to 5 million pilgrims from all over the world visit Lourdes every year to pray, drink and bathe in the water.

Bernadette didn’t like the attention she was attracting, Bernadette went to the hospice school run by the Sisters of Charity.  While there she learned to read and write. Although she considered joining the Carmelites, her health kept from her entering any of the strict orders. On July 29, 1866, with 42 other candidates, she joined the Sisters of Charity at their motherhouse at Nevers. Her Mistress of Novices was Sister Marie Therese Vauzou. The Mother Superior at the time gave her the name Marie-Bernarde in honor of her godmother who was named “Bernarde”. Bernadette was devoted to Saint Bernard, her patron saint; she copied long texts related to him in notebooks and on bits of paper. Becoming ‘Sister Marie-Bernard’ made her realize the great grace she received from the Queen of Heaven brought with it great responsibilities.  

Bernadette spent the rest of her life at the convent working as an assistant in the infirmary and later as a sacristan, creating beautiful embroidery for altar cloths and vestments. Her sister nuns admired her humility and spirit of sacrifice. One day, asked about the apparitions, she answered, Mary, used me as a broom to remove the dust. When the work is done, the broom is put behind the door again.

She followed the development of Lourdes as a pilgrimage shrine while she still lived at Lourdes but was not present for the consecration of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in 1876.

Bernadette’s childhood cholera illness left her with severe, chronic asthma.  She contracted tuberculosis of the lungs and bones. For several months before dying, she was unable to take an active part in the convent life. She eventually died of her long-term illness at the age of 35 on 16 April 16, 1879.  This was the Wednesday after Easter.

Saint Juliana of Nicomedia is said to have suffered Christian martyrdom during the Diocletian persecution in 304. She was popular in the Middle Ages, especially in the Netherlands, as the patron saint of sickness.

Saint Juliana, the daughter of a famous pagan named Africanus, was born in Nicomedia.  Her father was hostile to the Christians. Juliana had secretly chosen to be baptized. As a child was betrothed to Senator Eleusius, a prominent officer from Antioch.  He was one of the emperor’s advisors. When the time of her wedding approached, Juliana refused to be married. This surprised her parents because until then she had never opposed them.  She had been an obedient daughter. Her father urged her not to break her engagement, but when she refused to obey him, he handed her over to the Governor.  Eleusius’ ego was injured and he wanted revenge. He asked about and found out that Juliana had converted to Christianity, without her parents knowing. While she was in prison, her former fiancé, Elusius asked Juliana to marry him, but she again refused. Juliana preferred to die rather than have a pagan as a husband.
Eleusius was filled with hate, flogging her ruthlessly. After that, he burned her face with a hot iron and said to her, “Go now to the mirror to see your beauty”. Juliana answered him with a light smile: “At the resurrection of the righteous, there won’t exist burnings and wounds but only the soul. I prefer to have now the wounds of the body which are temporary, rather than the wounds of the soul which torture eternal.”  Juliana was beheaded. She was partially burned in flames, plunged into a boiling pot of oil, and finally beheaded. Saint Barbara suffered the death of a martyr along with Juliana.

A noble lady named Sephonia came through Nicomedia and took the saint’s body with her to Italy, and had it buried in Campania. This is why Juliana, honored in Nicomedia The veneration of Saint Juliana of Nicomedia became very widespread, especially in the Netherlands. She became known as the patron saint of sickness.

Saint Scholastica was born around 480 in Italy. Her parents were wealthy. She dedicated her life to God from the time she was very young. Her father depended on her after Scholastica’s mother had died, and didn’t want her to go, but he could not refuse God his child.  She is the twin sister of Saint Benedict, who formed the Benedictine order. They grew up together until he left home to continue his studies. He created a monastery near Monte Cassino.  She create the first Benedictine convent for nuns about five miles from his monastery. 
They visited each other once a year.  She was not allowed in his monastery, so they met at a home between the two monasteries. They spent their visits praying and discussion spiritual matters.  

At one of these meetings, St. Scholastica begged her brother to stay until the next day.  St. Benedict refused to break his own rule that he not spend the night outside of his monastery.  She prayed and a major thunderstorm came.  It was storming so hard no one could return home. Benedict asked, “What have you done?” 

She answered. “I asked and you would not listen, so I asked my God and He did listen.”

So they spent the rest of the night praying, discussion the faith, and the power of prayer.  The next day, both left.  Three days later Saint Scholastica died. In a vision, Saint Benedict saw her soul, in the form of a shining white dove go to heaven.  She died in 543.  Benedict had her buried in the tomb he had prepared for himself.  She is the patron saint of nuns and against thunderstorms.