"A Tribute To Mother Ignacia del Espiritu Santo"

On The 258th Anniversary Of Her Death On September 10, 2006
by Sr. Ma. Nicetas Dael, RVM

More than two centuries and half or 258 years ago Mother Ignacia del Espiritu Santo, our revered Foundress, entrusted her soul to her Creator who called her on September 10, 1748 after her earthly sojourn of 85 years in preparation for a fuller life to come.

Tradition has it that this Servant of God died on her knees after having received Our Lord Jesus at Holy Communion. In a posture of prayer there she was communing with the Lord. Peacefully. Quietly. Calmly. Subsequently she passed from this vale of tears to the life of joy and peace.

Gauged from this momentous event, Mother Ignacia, who had effected a breakthrough in the Catholic Church as well as in the Philippine society of her time, deserves a memory to be cherished. Along with the centenary year of the Canonical Erection of the institution she founded from the humble beginnings of the Beaterio to its recognition as Congregation by the Catholic Church on July 31, 1906, we gather here to pay our loving tribute to this valiant woman in a joyful thanksgiving to Our Lord for gifting Mother Ignacia to us—not only to the RVM Congregation but also to the Local Church of the Philippines as well as to the Universal Church in the whole of Christendom.

How remarkable it is for the Holy See to stamp its approval of the existence of the Congregation which was further enhanced almost a year later when His Holiness Pope St. Pius X issued a DECREE OF PRAISE to our Congregation on March 17, 1907. This decree raised the rank of Mother Ignacia’s foundation as the FIRST FILIPINO CONGREGATION OF WOMEN RELIGIOUS IN THE PHILIPPINES WITH PONTIFICAL RIGHTS.

Indeed God lavishes the RVM Congregation with abundant blessings far beyond that which it deserves. A word of thanks does not suffice to express the deep sense of gratitude welling within the hearts of Mother Ignacia’s followers. Rather it is incumbent upon each and every member of the Congregation to concretize this by being genuine witnesses in the life that each one lives…a witness anchored in a love beyond measure as Mother Ignacia did. Yes. Mother Ignacia has paved the way for her spiritual daughters in the journey towards the heavenly Father by her life of the Beatitudes as she rendered humble service to the Lord, her marvelous devotion to the Holy Eucharist and to the Blessed Mother of God, her unconditional love of the heavenly Father’s will and her total abnegation of anything that is not pleasing in the eyes of the Divine Majesty to whom she vowed to serve without counting the cost.

I would like to close this introduction with a wish articulated by Mother Ignacia’s biographer, Rev. Fr. Pedro Murillo Velarde, SJ when he wrote:

“And after too much work, as she left her life rested in peace in
her death, and I hope that in God’s mercy, He will give her the
reward of resting in the glory following the evening’s pain of
suffering in this life, the joyful morning of great consolation of
eternity.”

As we celebrate the 258 th death anniversary of our revered Foundress, Mother Ignacia del Espiritu Santo,may the prophetic words of Fr. Murillo be realized with the “joyful morning of great consolation of eternity” and be revealed in her beatification, according to how the Lord sees it fit to happen. #