ST LAURA OF ST CATHERINE OF SIENA

ST LAURA OF ST CATHERINE OF SIENA - 21 OCTOBER

ST LAURA OF ST CATHERINE OF SIENA

Saint Laura of Saint Catherine of Siena, born Maria Laura Montoya y Upegui was born in 1874 in Jerico, Antioquia, Columbia, the second of three children. During the Columbian Civil War of 1876, St Laura’s father was killed and the family was left in poverty. St Laura was sent to live with her grandmother and at the age of 16, in order to help with the family finances, she went to receive training to become an elementary school teacher. This training took place in Amalfi and Medellin.

Beginning in 1908 St Laura worked as a missionary to the native people in the Uraba and Sarare regions of Columbia where she founded the ‘Works of the Indians’. Even though she wanted to become a cloistered Carmelite nun, St Laura felt growing within her the desire to spread the Gospel of Jesus to those who had never heard of Him and to destroy the racial discrimination that existed around her. In 1914 St Laura started the Congregation of Missionary Sisters of Immaculate Mary and of St Catherine of Siena. She left Medellin with four sisters and went to live in Dabeira with the native Indians. This was a difficult work but St Laura persevered.

Illness hit St Laura hard and for the last nine years of her life she had to use a wheelchair to move about. St Laura died after prolonged illness in 1949. Today her missionary sisters work in 19 countries throughout America, Europe and Africa.

In his homily at the Mass of Canonization, Pope Francis said of St Laura, ‘This first saint, born in the beautiful country of Columbia, teaches us to be generous with God, not to live our faith alone – as if it were possible to live faith in an isolated way – but to communicate it, to convey the joy of the Gospel with words and the witness of life in every place in which we find ourselves. Wherever we live let this light of the Gospel shine! St Laura…teaches us to welcome all without prejudice, without discrimination, without reticence, with sincere love, giving them all the best of ourselves and above all sharing with them what is most precious to us, which is not our works or our organisations, no! Our most precious possession is Christ and his Gospel.’

From: Spiritual Thought from Fr Chris

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Saint Laura may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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