Venerable Mary of Agreda
(Maria de Agreda)
Mary of Agreda was born at Agreda in Spain in 1602, of noble parents, whose virtues surpassed the nobility of their birth. In her seventeenth year Mary entered the convent of Poor Clares of the Immaculate Conception at Agreda.
Mary of Agreda’s work among the Indians of Texas and New Mexico. Her ardent desire, prayers, and sacrifices for their conversion were apparently rewarded with the gift of bilocation. Between 1621 and 1631, when Mary of Agreda was between nineteen and twenty-nine years of age, she made some five hundred visits to the Texas Indians, coming, as it seemed to them, from the hills on their horizon and returning that way after her instructions were over. When these Indians presented themselves to the Franciscan missionaries in New Mexico and asked that fathers be sent among them, it was learned that a Lady in Blue had often come among them, instructed them, and ordered them to seek out missionaries to baptize them.
Upon investigation it was learned that this Lady in Blue was Mary of Agreda, who, when she was put under obedience to tell what had happened, said she had no explanation. She could not say how she got there, only that when she was praying for the welfare of the Indians, she just found herself among them and began to instruct them. Presently she found herself home again. This happened many times.
Lk 1:37 All things are possible with God!
(Maria de Agreda)
Mary of Agreda was born at Agreda in Spain in 1602, of noble parents, whose virtues surpassed the nobility of their birth. In her seventeenth year Mary entered the convent of Poor Clares of the Immaculate Conception at Agreda.
Mary of Agreda’s work among the Indians of Texas and New Mexico. Her ardent desire, prayers, and sacrifices for their conversion were apparently rewarded with the gift of bilocation. Between 1621 and 1631, when Mary of Agreda was between nineteen and twenty-nine years of age, she made some five hundred visits to the Texas Indians, coming, as it seemed to them, from the hills on their horizon and returning that way after her instructions were over. When these Indians presented themselves to the Franciscan missionaries in New Mexico and asked that fathers be sent among them, it was learned that a Lady in Blue had often come among them, instructed them, and ordered them to seek out missionaries to baptize them.
Upon investigation it was learned that this Lady in Blue was Mary of Agreda, who, when she was put under obedience to tell what had happened, said she had no explanation. She could not say how she got there, only that when she was praying for the welfare of the Indians, she just found herself among them and began to instruct them. Presently she found herself home again. This happened many times.
Lk 1:37 All things are possible with God!
