On Sunday, October 14, 2018, Pope Francis canonized Blessed Paul VI, Blessed Oscar Romero, Blessed Vincent Romano, Blessed Francesco Spinelli, Blessed Nazaria March Mesa, and Blessed Katharina Kasper. A few weeks ago I wrote about Saint Paul VI. I want to continue writing about these newly canonized saints. Today I am writing about Nazaria Ignacia March Mesa. I am going to base my remarks about her on the short biography published recently in the English edition of L’Osservatore Romano.
Born in Madrid, Spain on January 10, 1889, Nazaria Ignacia March Mesa migrated to Mexico with her family when she was seventeen. During her journey she met two sisters who belonged to the Little Sisters of the Abandoned Elderly, whose prayerful simplicity deeply impressed her. Her desire to consecrate herself to the Lord became even stronger until, at the feet of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Guadalupe, she decided to join the Little Sisters of the Abandoned Elderly in the Martias Romero hospice in Mexico City. After returning to Spain to complete her novitiate in Palencia and to make her first vows, she was sent on mission along with several other religious to the mining town of Oruro, Bolivia. After assuming the habit, she took the name Nazaria Ignacia of Saint Teresa of Jesus.
Oruro was afflicted by political and social struggles, and became home to many poor people fleeing starvation. Bolivia had not yet been evangelized and there were no priests. Nazaria Ignacia went there to spread the Word of God in the mines, in the farms of the Indios (members of the indigenous peoples of America or Eastern Asia in areas formerly controlled by Spain or Portugal), the prisons or the market places. She supported the workers’ cause and promoted the advancement of women. Moved by the desperate conditions of the poverty-stricken people, she helped them claim their work rights and founded the first women’s trade union.
Sr. Nazaria Ignacia strived to lift the people of Oruro from their state of prostration. Her message of love for the Church was so clear and her apostolic zeal so strong that many were profoundly moved by her charism. By charism I mean a gift of the Holy Spirit given in a particular way to an individual or a group to build up the Kingdom of God for the good of the Church. She opened soup kitchens and provided housing for orphans and women uprooted by the Chaco War, which was a war fought between Bolivia and Paraguay over control of the Gran Chaco region of South America. The Gran Chaco region was thought to be rich in oil. Sr. Nazaria Ignacia also opened small schools to teach reading to those who were illiterate.
Between 1908 and 1925, Ignacia experienced great intimacy with Jesus while at the same time seeking alms for the elderly whom she look after. Her fidelity to following in Christ’s footsteps grew ever firmer until, on January 27, 1925, she received the Lord’s revelation of his plans for her: to establish a congregation of women that would be distinguished by their love for the Church and the desire to spread the Good News at any cost, even to the point of sacrificing their own lives if necessary.
When her project was approved with the name Missionaries of the Crusade, she dedicated herself fully to the new congregation. Within just eighteen years, the congregation spread to Argentina, Uruguay, and Spain.
Sr. Nazaria Ignacia died in Buenos Aires, Argentina on June 6, 1943 and at her request was buried at Oruro. She was beatified by Pope St. John Paul II on September 27, 1992.