"She will be the first truly Argentinean saint". With these words, Andrea Tornielli, director of the Vatican's Dicastery for Communication, described Antonia Paz de Figueroa, better known as Mama Antula. This Argentinean will be elevated to the honor of the altars on February 11, 2024 by Pope Francis.
Born in 1730 in Silipica, in the interior of the Argentine province of Santiago del Estero and died on March 7, 1799 in Buenos Aires, in one of her biographies she was called "the most rebellious woman of her time".
The author of that book, Nunzia Locatelli, together with Cintia Suares, presented a new biography, "Mama Antula, the faith of a rebellious woman," on Tuesday, December 19, 2023, at the Vatican film library.
The event was also attended by the Argentinean Ambassador to the Holy See, Maria Fernanda Silva; the Prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Communication, Pablo Rufini; and the Secretary of the Dicastery, Bishop Lucio Ruiz. During the event, Mama Antula and the convulsive period in which she lived, marked by the expulsion of the Society of Jesus from the territories of the Spanish Crown by order of King Charles II, were remembered.
Antonia Paz de Figueroa, belonging to an important family of the time, who also saw the closing of the so-called Jesuit reductions, and their priests chained and taken away as criminals, was determined to continue organizing the Ignatian retreats, allowing some 70,000 people from the most diverse social classes to participate in them, despite the risk that this entailed.
An unpublished revelation made by Bishop Ruiz, during the presentation, was about Claudio P., the person miraculously cured through the intercession of Blessed Antonia. When he was 17 years old and attending the seminary, he met the then provincial Jorge Bergoglio, who "patted him on the back and suggested that he seek another vocational path, promising him that he would bless his wife and children". And "how nice," he added, "to see that Francis will be the one to canonize the intercessor of the miracle that allowed her to continue living.
Ruiz concluded by recalling the four thousand kilometers that this holy woman traveled carrying a wooden cross and pointed out that she "is a gift for so many who walk with hope".
The miracle
Mama Antula is credited with the miracle of Mr. Claudio (born in 1959), who suffered an "ischemic stroke" with hemorrhagic infarction in several areas, deep coma, sepsis, resistant septic shock, with multiorgan failure.
In a video shown during the presentation of this new biography, his wife narrated the clinical situation, during his hospitalization in intensive care, with a diagnosis of "certain death" after a CAT scan, which later became "vegetative state" in the best of hypotheses. And she pointed out that today, with the help of physiotherapy, he is leading a normal life."
Comparing the scientific conclusions reached by the treating physicians and the Medical Consultation of September 14, 2023, on the healing of Mr. C.P. and of the texts all attesting to the invocation of Blessed Maria Antonia of St. Joseph, the relationship between invocation and healing became clear and evident," Vatican News indicates.
The mayor of Santiago del Estero, Diego Fares, also spoke by video and recalled how the people of Santiago del Estero have always remembered Mama Antula, even when it seemed that history had forgotten her.
Mama Antula's life
At the age of 15, in 1745, she had taken the habit of "beata" with the name of Maria Antonia de San Jose, with the emission of private vows and the entrance to the so-called "Beaterio".
She began to lead a community life and to help children and the sick, under the direction of Jesuit Father Gaspar Juarez, who donated her Jesuit cassock, which she kept with her.
In 1767, after the expulsion of the Jesuits, Maria Antonia, already 37 years old, matured the intention of continuing, in spite of the prohibitions, the apostolate of the Spiritual Exercises. She had the support of her confessor and the Bishop of the city of Santiago del Estero, where she opened a house.
He traveled through Santiago del Estero, Silípica, Loreto, Salavina, Soconcho, Atamasqui. Later, he also went to other provinces such as Catamarca, La Rioja, Jujuy, Salta and Tucumán.
In September 1779, in Buenos Aires, he asked the Viceroy and the Bishop to organize the Exercises, which lasted about 10 days. The following year, he obtained it and began the retreats with remarkable spiritual fruits and an attendance of more than 15,000 people in four years.
He also traveled to Uruguay and, upon his return to Buenos Aires, he began the construction of the Holy House of Spiritual Exercises at 1190 Independencia Avenue, which is today one of the oldest buildings in the city.
She died at the age of 69 and was buried in the Basilica of Nuestra Señora de la Merced in the Argentine capital. In 1799 her body was transferred to the Basilica of Santo Domingo and today it is in the church of Nuestra Señora de la Merced.
Mama Antula's process
Silvia Correale, postulator since 1998 of the cause of Antonia Figueroa de Paz indicated that the Diocesan Instruction or Informative Process as it was then called, of the cause of Mama Antula, opened in 1905 in Buenos Aires, was the first cause to be instructed in that country.
"The grandchildren of the contemporaries went to testify, saying: "since I was ten years old I heard about...", or "I know from my parents and ancestors..." always reiterating the fame of sanctity of Antonia Paz de Figueroa, which had reached their ears.
Among the documents they found, together with Bishop Guillermo Karcher, an external collaborator of the cause and editor of the biography of the Positio super vita, virutibus, fama sanctorum et signorum, "are the missives found in the State Archives in Rome, some written directly by Mama Antula or dictated by her, responding to letters or writings, such as those sent by Ambrosio Funes, brother of Dean Funes".
– Supernatural Positio super vita, virtutibus, fama sanctitatis et signorum was delivered in 2003; after having passed the Theological Commission and the Ordinary Commission of Cardinals and Bishops, Pope Benedict XVI authorized the publication of the decree of virtues on July 1, 2010, and he became Venerable.
In March 2016, Pope Francis authorized the publication of the decree on the miracle and that same year, in August, the beatification ceremony of Antonia Paz de Figueroa took place in the city of Santiago del Estero (Argentina).
In 2018, the process on the probable miracle of canonization was instructed, obtaining a positive opinion from the Medical Consultation, the Theological Commission and the Ordinary of Cardinals.
On October 24, 2023, Pope Francis authorized the publication of the decree of the miracle and the date of the canonization ceremony was set for February 11, 2024.
