Religious Foundress and Missionary (1874-1949)
Her life
+ Laura Montoya y Upegui was born in Jerico, Colombia. After completing her education, she became a teacher.
+ Beginning in 1908, she worked as a missionary among the native peoples in the Uraba and Sarare regions of Colombia.
+ To support the indigenous communities, she founded a charitable organization called the “Works of Indians” and later, in 1914, she established a new order of sisters: The Congregation of Missionary Sisters of Immaculate Mary and of St. Catherine of Siena. Today these sisters serve the poor throughout South America.
+ Saint Laura of St. Catherine of Siena died in Medellin, Colombia, and was canonized in 2013.
For reflection
“This blessed Colombian considered herself as mother to the Indians, to whom she wanted to show God’s love. Her times were not easy ones, since the social tensions bloodied even then her noble country.”—Pope Saint John Paul II
Prayer
O God, by whose gift blessed Laura persevered in imitating Christ, poor and lowly, grant us through her intercession that, faithfully walking in our own vocation, we may reach the perfection you have set before us in your Son. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
(from The Roman Missal: Common of Holy Men and Women—For a Religious)
Saint profiles prepared by Brother Silas Henderson, S.D.S.
And today we celebrate...