VENERABLE MARY OF AGREDA
VENERABLE MARY OF AGREDA
Mary was born on 2nd April 1602, the elder daughter of Francis Coronel and Catherine of Arana in Agreda in northern Spain .Her parents had been blessed with eleven children, but only four of them lived, two girls and two boys.
She was most favoured with supernatural visions starting even before her second birthday. In her first vision she received the use of reason. Powers of understanding and strength of will ( which she most certainly needed in the trouble-filled years that lay ahead of her), and a remarkable memory were gifts which she received from God. She had not reached her sixth year when God suddenly withdrew from her and hid himself from her. This was a most excruciating test similar in effect to the worry and pain of loss that God inflicted on Mary and Joseph when they lost Jesus in Jerusalem for three days, when He was about 12 years of age. However Mary of Agreda was not to have visions of her beloved God again until about 11 years later - one year after she became a nun.
Sister Mary had many ecstasies, often lasting for two to three hours, during which her body would become so light that it would rise above the ground, and the slightest wind would move it about like a feather. These often happened after she had received her Lord in Holy Communion, which she did daily. These ecstasies caused her Abbess to have her subjected to very detailed ecclesiastical examination. The Provincial of Burgos, Father Anthony Da Villacre tested her in various ways, and was convinced of her genuineness, and pronounced it true holiness. Abbe J A Boullan, a Doctor of Theology, declared of Sister Mary, "In the highest rank of the mystics of past ages, who have been endowed with signal graces and singular privileges by the august Queen of Heaven, must be placed, without hesitation, the Venerable Mary of Jesus, called of Agreda, from the name of the city in Spain where she passed her life."
American history records that the year 1620 heralded the arrival of the first "Pilgrims" aboard the Mayflower in the new land discovered by Columbus some 100+ years earlier. They landed in Plymouth, on the northeastern coast of what is now the United States of America. At the same time, and in fact for the next eleven years, Sister Mary of Agreda, by the special God-given power of bilocation (being in two places at once) visited the south western side of present day USA, teaching the Indians the messages of Christianity. She spoke to them in Spanish, and yet they were able to understand her perfectly, and she understood their Indian language, without ever having been taught it. The Indians did not know where she came from or even her name, but they called her the "Lady in Blue", since she wore a blue mantle.
Fray Alonzo de Benavides of the Order of St. Francis, while Superior of New Mexico from 1622 to 1630 was ordered by His Excellency Don Francisco Manzo y Zuniga, Archbishop elect of Mexico to find this "Lady in Blue". This came as the result of two reliable reports that he had received, one from the missionaries who were stationed in New Mexico. They told how the Indians had sought them out, under the direction of a "Lady in Blue", who had taught them much about Christianity, and they wanted the missionaries to visit them. The other report came from Agreda in Spain, and asked his Excellency to investigate the conversion of the Indians of New Mexico by an unknown white woman.
After searching without success for eight years, Fra Benavides finally found the "Lady in Blue" - not in New Mexico - but in his homeland of Spain. When he arrived in Madrid in 1630, he told the Superior General of the Order, Father Bernardine of Sienna, the reason for his trip,and then was told that Father Bernardine knew who the "Lady in Blue" was - that it was Mary of Agreda, whom he had examined some eight years earlier. And he was convinced from all his examinations that Mary of Agreda was the instrument which God was using to convert the native Indians of the south-west of America. Father Benavides and Fra Samaniego, who was then the Provincial of Burgos, travelled to the Convent at Agreda, and commanded Sister Mary to tell him the truth about her "flights" to America.Very reluctantly she did so. He questioned her about various things that he had seen in New Mexico, the features of that province, the customs of the native Indians, and the weather etc., and her answers totally convinced him that she had indeed "travelled" many times to New Mexico, without at the same time having left Agreda.
Shortly after Easter in the year 1665, Mary, who had been Abbess of the Convent for many years, assembled all the Nuns in Chapter on a Monday, whereas this had been done on Friday for the past 35 years. She told them that it would be the last Chapter she would hold. On Wednesday she was stricken with a mortal illness, and died at 9.00 on the Feast of Pentecost, the traditional hour at which the Holy Spirit descended upon the Virgin Mary and the Apostles.
At the moment she died she was seen in a brilliant light, in a church in Agreda, and later it was discovered that she had been seen by several eminent people, ascending into heaven, in several places far distant from Agreda.
Her sisters testify that in her last moments on earth, a beautiful voice was heard saying,
" come, come, come." And on the third call she breathed her last, and departed for her heavenly home.
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