The Adorers novices Ann Mutuku, Yeraldine Motta and Isis Segura visited Valencia, Spain, from May 1 to 3, 2024, the city where the body of St. Maria Micaela, foundress of the Congregation of Sisters Adorers, Handmaids of the Blessed Sacrament and of Charity, rests.
This visit is part of the formation plan for the novices of our Congregation to get to know the figure of Mother Sacramento in greater depth. Sister Sumi Thomas, novice mistress, and Sister Josefa Portillo, who accompany them in their formation at the International Novitiate in Madrid, Spain, also travelled with Ann, Isis and Geraldine.
In the footsteps of St. Maria Micaela in Valencia
Throughout these days, the novices have followed in the footsteps of St. Maria Micaela in this city. On the first day, they celebrated the Eucharist in the Basilica of the Virgin de los Desamparados and had a snack in Santa Catalina, two places frequently visited by Mother Sacramento. They were also in front of the house where she died.
The next day they got to know Valencia better, they went for a walk along the river, the science park and the beach. On this occasion, Sr. Sumi led the night Adoration, thus joining in the essence of the Adorers’ charism. To conclude the itinerary, each novice took advantage of the spaces in the house in Valencia to be intimate in prayer with our foundress.
On this experience, one of the novices emphasized that “having the opportunity to spend these days with the saint is an immense gift from God at this stage of my formation as an Adorer. It has been to relive all that I have read about her with so much enthusiasm and listened to the sisters and to experience the
In the footsteps of St. Maria Micaela: Visit of Adorers’ novices to Valencia, Spain
The Adorers novices Ann Mutuku, Yeraldine Motta and Isis Segura visited Valencia, Spain, from May 1 to 3, 2024, the city where the body of St. Maria Micaela, foundress of the Congregation of Sisters Adorers, Handmaids of the Blessed Sacrament and of Charity, rests.
This visit is part of the formation plan for the novices of our Congregation to get to know the figure of Mother Sacramento in greater depth. Sister Sumi Thomas, novice mistress, and Sister Josefa Portillo, who accompany them in their formation at the International Novitiate in Madrid, Spain, also travelled with Ann, Isis and Geraldine.
In the footsteps of St. Maria Micaela in Valencia
Throughout these days, the novices have followed in the footsteps of St. Maria Micaela in this city. On the first day, they celebrated the Eucharist in the Basilica of the Virgin de los Desamparados and had a snack in Santa Catalina, two places frequently visited by Mother Sacramento. They were also in front of the house where she died.
The next day they got to know Valencia better, they went for a walk along the river, the science park and the beach. On this occasion, Sr. Sumi led the night Adoration, thus joining in the essence of the Adorers’ charism. To conclude the itinerary, each novice took advantage of the spaces in the house in Valencia to be intimate in prayer with our foundress.
On this experience, one of the novices emphasized that “having the opportunity to spend these days with the saint is an immense gift from God at this stage of my formation as an Adorer. It has been to relive all that I have read about her with so much enthusiasm and listened to the sisters and to experience the grace of feeling supported and encouraged by Micaela on this path of surrender to the Lord”.
“Moments of profound prayer, faces presented before her, walking the last streets she walked, celebrating the Eucharist in the place where she would have celebrated it more than once with the Virgin of the Forsaken, the sensation of communion with Jesus himself, her and so many sisters during the night Adoration? They are experiences that have penetrated deeply and have made me become aware of the greatness and responsibility to continue responding in fidelity to the Lord who has invited me to continue being part of this religious family, prolonging in our time so many years of congregational history”, she adds.
“In the face of so many gifts, I can only bow down before his Love and say once again: THANK YOU LORD”, concludes the novice Adorer.
Santa María Micaela and Valencia
The first house-school for women in prostitution was founded by St. Maria Micaela at 8 Dos Amigos Street in Madrid in 1845. From 1850, St. Maria Micaela took full management of the house, stayed with the girls and took the name of Mother Sacramento. She sought the collaboration of teachers to help her in the education of the women.
Later, the work of St. Maria Micaela spread to other cities in Spain: Zaragoza (1856), Valencia (1858), Barcelona (1861), Burgos (1863), Santander (1864) and Pinto (Madrid branch, 1864).
Other women (teachers at the College and young women from her social environment) joined Micaela, attracted by her way of living the love of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and her dedication to the service of women in prostitution. The Congregation of the Adorers, Handmaids of the Blessed Sacrament and of Charity was born.
In 1856, the first group met and, with ecclesiastical approval, began to live the Adorers’ charism of Adoration and Liberation with their Foundress.
In August 1865, when she heard that a cholera epidemic was breaking out in Valencia, Micaela decided to travel by train to help the nuns and women of the house during the epidemic. There she became irreversibly infected with the disease. She died in this Spanish city, a victim of charity, on 24 August 1865.
