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Ø Foundress of the Congregation of the Sisters
Servants of Saint Joseph
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Born
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6th June 1837
in Salamanca, Spain
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Died
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8th August 1905 in Salamanca,
Spain
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Venerated
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1st July 2000
by Pope John Paul II (decree of heroic virtues)
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Beatified
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9th November 2003 by Pope John
Paul II
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Canonized
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On 23rd
October 2011, Rome by Pope Benedict XVI
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Feast
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6th June
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St.
Bonifacia Rodriguez born in Salamanca,
Spain, on June 6, 1837, in the bosom of an artisan family. Her parents, Juan
and Maria Natalia, were deeply Christian, having foremost in their mind the
education in faith of their six children among whom Bonifacia was the eldest.
A group of
girls from Salamanca, her friends, attracted by the witness of her life,
begin to meet in her house-shop in the afternoon of Sundays and feast days in
order to avoid dangerous forms of entertainment of the time. They found in
Bonifacia a friend who would help them. Together they decide to form the
Association of the Immaculate and St. Joseph, later called Josephine
Association. Thus, the shop of Bonifacia acquires a clear apostolic and
social dimension of preventing the woman worker from being led astray.
Bonifacia
feels called to religious life. Her great devotion to Mary continues to
nurture in her heart the dream of becoming a Dominican in the convent of Sta.
Maria de Dueñas in Salamanca.
But a
momentous event will change the course of her life: the encounter with a
Catalan Jesuit Francisco Javier Butiña y Hospital, native of Bañolas-Gerona
(1834-1899), who arrives in Salamanca in October of 1870 with a great
apostolic concern toward the world of manual workers. He was writing for them
“The Light of the Manual Worker”, a collection of life stories of
distinguished faithful who sanctified themselves in humble occupations.
Attracted by his evangelizing message about the sanctification of work,
Bonifacia puts herself under his spiritual direction. Through her, Butiña
gets in contact with the young women who frequented her shop, majority of
whom are also manual workers. And the Holy Spirit moves him to found a new
congregation oriented towards the protection of the woman worker out of this
group of women workers.
Rodríguez
took up the challenge along with her mother and five other members of the
Association, who then moved into the small Rodríguez home to form a religious
community, with her as their leader. They took the name Servants of St.
Joseph, to show their identification with him as the primary laborer in the
Holy Family, and also seeking his protection. They took religious vows on 10
January 1874. Father Butinyà, is honored as their co-founder.
Three years
later, the Congregation moved from the working-class neighborhood where
Bonificia had lived her entire life to a large, old house which was in total
disrepair. The Servants named it the House of St. Teresa. They continued to
work, though, with the members of the Josephite Association which Rodríguez
had founded in her first days of religious commitment. This collaboration
continued to prove fruitful to both groups in working their missions.
Butinyas
began to write to Mother Bonifacia, urging her to go Catalonia in order to
expand the Congregation. For various reasons, she was not able to comply with
his repeated requests. Thus, in February 1875, Butinyà established a
community of Sisters on his own in that region of the country, following the
pattern he had helped establish in Castile. Soon there were several new
communities of the Servants of St. Joseph in that region. They remained
canonically separate from the community in Salamanca. however Bonifacia
made attempts to the complete union of
all the communities
She died on 8th August 1905. Pope John Paul II beatified
Mother Bonifacia on 9 November 2003 in Rome. On 23rd October 2011, Canonized by Pope Benedict
XVI
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