Rome (Italy). One of the favorite topics of Blessed Sister Eusebia Palomino Yenes, Daughter of Mary Help of Christians who lived in Spain (1899-1935), beatified in Rome by John Paul II on 25 April 2004, was the love of Jesus for all people, whom He saved with His Passion, and the Holy wounds of Jesus.
Since childhood, Eusebia practiced a very rigorous ascesis out of love for Him who “died for all, so that those who live no longer live for themselves, but for the One who died and rose again for them”.
At the age of 11, she had a dream of the Crucified, which sowed the seed of her ardent love for the wounds of Christ and her ardor in propagating them with the following prayer, “My Jesus, forgiveness and mercy through the merits of your holy Wounds”.
Here is the account taken from the Positio on the virtues of the Servant of God Eusebia Palomino Yenes:
“About a year later, finding myself in the same house, I dreamed that I was walking down a road and suddenly everything lit up, and I saw a great and immense field in which there were thousands and thousands of souls, of all classes, ages, and conditions. In the midst of that multitude, the Crucified appeared who emitted rays from each of His five Wounds. Suddenly the Crucified rose, opened His divine lips, and said these words to me, “These are the souls who will be saved through my Wounds.” He continued to rise, and behind Him all that immense multitude of souls, until in large part I lost sight of them in the firmament”.
The origin of this prayer comes from a humble converse of the Visitation of Chambery, who died in the odor of sanctity on 21 March 1907. It is a Rosary or ‘Chaplet of the Holy Wounds of Our Lord Jesus Christ or of Mercy’. The Lord, appearing to this converse, Marta Maria Chambon, made her promises but told her that not she, but another would spread that Chaplet very much.
Sr. Eusebia, obedient to the dream, surprisingly began to spread the Rosary to the Holy Wounds throughout Spain. Even little girls who could not yet read recited it from memory. She said that the Rosary of the Wounds and that of the Blessed Virgin would save the world. Her ardor was so great for the salvation of Spain that, not only in Valverde but in most of the towns and villages, she made this devotion known, sending packets of prints with the Rosary of the Holy Wounds.
Fr. Francisco Arroyo, Chaplain of the FMA School of Valverde, affirms that Sr. Eusebia, “had an ardent devotion to the Passion of the Lord, especially for His wounds. People who knew her well say that she was exemplary when she practiced the daily prayer of the Way of the Cross”.
On the 150th anniversary of the foundation of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, one cannot fail to remember that the devotion to the Lord’s Passion was strongly felt by Mother Mazzarello. “Devotion to the Passion of Jesus was regarded by her, and rightly so, as an effective means to flee from sin and enflame ourselves with love for the Divine Master” (Fr. Maccono, The spirit and virtues of S. Mary D. Mazzarello).
Don Bosco too said, “My affection for you [young] people is founded on the desire I have to save your souls which were all redeemed by the precious Blood of Jesus Christ” (Spiritual advice in Don Bosco’s letters to boys and young people).
Finally, for Saint Francis de Sales, whose 400th anniversary of death occurs in 2022, the Passion “is the true school of divine love; the sweetest and strongest reason to animate our piety”.
