Martha de San Bernardo

Martha de San Bernardo, P.C.C., was a 17th-century Colettine Poor Clare who was first Filipino woman to become a Roman Catholic nun and renowned Catholic pending for the cause for Beatification alongside with Maddalena de la Concepcion, a religious from the Poor Clares.[1][2][3]

Biography

While her birth name is lost, it is recorded that she was a ladina (a Spanish-speaking native of the Philippines who had no Spanish ancestry) who belonged to an affluent and influential family from Pampanga on the island of Luzon, then part of the Spanish East Indies. Inspired by the lives of the Colettine Clares who had arrived from Spain in 1621 under the leadership of Mother Jerónima de la Asunción, P.C.C., and established the Royal Monastery of Saint Clare in Intramuros, she wished to become a nun herself. In this, she was able to secure the support of the monastic community. Due, however, to the colonial regulations of the Spanish Empire which ruled the islands and the existing racial prejudices of the period, she was barred from admission.[4]

Instead, in 1633, with the assistance of the Minister General of the Franciscans, she was sent to a newly opened monastery in the Portuguese colony of Macau. Together with several Spanish postulants, she was formally received into the Colettine Order onboard a ship sailing the South China Sea, at which time she was given the religious name by which she is now known.[1][2][3]

The precise details of Mother De San Bernardo's death are unrecorded. The Colettines officially give the years 1639-40, saying that she died in Macau while on mission.

Veneration

The cause for Martha de San Bernardo's canonization has been put forward, but it is still awaiting approval by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints of the Holy See.

See also

References
  1. Tantingco, Robby. First Filipino Nun was Kapampangan (Note: The first Filipino nun, Martha de San Bernardo, was under Doña Madre Jeronima de la Asuncion's congregation), Sunstar.com, March 06, 2007, retrieved on: June 18, 2007 Archived March 17, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  2. 99 Kapampangan Who Mattered in History and Why, Center for Kapampangan Studies, HAU.edu.ph and Geocities.com, 2007, retrieved on: June 23, 2007
  3. Pascual Jr., Federico D. Religious Firsts, Postscript, ABS-CBN Interactive, ABS-CBNNews.com, March 06, 2007, retrieved on: June 23, 2007 Archived July 9, 2007, at Archive.today
  4. AnDA, De (23 March 2011). "Asilo de San Vicente de Paul in UN". With One's Past.
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