Ursuline Sister and Educator (1883-1918)
Her life
+ Maria Magdalena Merten was born to a family of farmers in Düppenweiler, Germany.
+ As a young woman she worked as a teacher in secular schools, but in 1910 (with her sister Elise) she decided to enter the Ursuline Sisters near Ahrweiler.
+ Maria Magdalena began her novitiate in 1910 and received the religious name “Blandina of the Sacred Heart.” At the time of her final profession in 1913, she received permission to take a fourth vow—in addition to the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience—to be a votum victimae (a victim soul), expressing her willingness to offer everything for Christ and for the sake of others.
+ Sister Blandina was dedicated to her students and worked to instill in them a love for the Eucharist.
+ In 1916, she contracted tuberculosis and was forced to stop teaching. She died on May 18, 1918, in Trier. She was beatified in 1987.
For prayer and reflection
“Whoever loves God does not need to achieve exceptionally elevated actions; it is enough to love.”—Blessed Blandina Merten
Prayer
O God, who called blessed Blandina to seek your Kingdom in this world through the pursuit of perfect charity, grant, we pray, through her intercession that we may advance with joyful spirit along the way of love. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one 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...