Eusebia Palomino, transparency of God’s love

Rome (Italy). On 9 February 2024, the liturgical memorial is celebrated of Blessed Eusebia Palomino Yenes, Daughter of Mary Help of Christians who lived in Spain (1899-1935), beatified in Rome by John Paul II twenty years ago on 25 April 2004.

Sister Teresa de Jesús Rubio García, on 1 february 2024, in the last appointment of “Salesian Thursdays at the Auxilium” retraced her biography and the particular features of holiness. Sister Eusebia had an unshakable faith in the presence of Mary and therefore, she did not lack tangible signs of her guidance and motherhood. Of her, as of other great saints, one can say: “She saw what he believed”.

If she lacked education because of the meager possibilities of her family, she did not lack the knowledge and wisdom of someone who knows how to look at life and history from God’s perspective. Eusebia adapted to every situation, without ever forgetting the goal and the style she had decided to give to her existence. In fact, Sister Teresa de Jesús Rubio García quoted letter 76 to Teresa Vizcaíno, who asked her advice to enter the Order of the Visitation, in which she says:

“True holiness is not about going to a corner and praying, or disciplining oneself, or doing noisy things. No. True holiness consists in the renunciation of ourselves, following completely our common life and the exact fulfilment of all the duties that obedience imposes on us. It is there that we must seek holiness, and we must march with the right intention of pleasing only God and drawing hearts to Him through our self-denial, so that they can be converted and love Him”.

Sister Eusebia was much loved and sought after for her unconditional dedication, but above all because she knew how to make God’s love shine through in her actions and comportment. In her commitment to others, she saw the same love for “souls” that moved Don Bosco and that united her with many more or less known Daughters of Mary Help of Christians.

Sister Teresa recalled in the transmission of 1 February, the singular passion she put into spreading “Marian Slavery” by providing the Montfortian Center of Rome with a list of five hundred and ninety-three names. All these people were recruited for the Holy Slavery by the zeal of a religious Daughter of Mary Help of Christians, of Valverde del Camino (Huelva).

Love for Mary and charity for her neighbor enabled her to offer herself as a victim of the escalation of the conflicts that led her beloved Spain to civil war. Her faith allowed her to obtain a unique protection of the population of Valverde after her death.

Sister Teresa recounts, quoting the “Positio”:

“Sister Eusebia asked several students to bury the medals in the four cardinal points on the outskirts of Valverde. They divided the medals into four equal parts and, because one was left, Sister Eusebia indicated that it was to be buried at the entrance of the road that connects Nerva and Riotinto to Valverde, so there would be stronger protection. When the war broke out (Sister Eusebia was already dead), it became known that an entire troop of miners’ trucks tried to penetrate Valverde to raze it to the ground. At the same point mentioned above of the House of Direction, they returned to Riotinto under the pretext of artillery, cavalry, tank, and armored car resistance there. There was none of this. That point was defended by about fifty phalangists and civilian guards (Cf. Positio II, 248)”.

Twenty years after her Beatification, the profile of this Daughter of Mary Help of Christians appears very timely for her fortitude and her ability to overcome her limited education, poverty, and illness in order to contribute to the expansion of the civilization of love.

On this significant occasion, the Spanish Province of Mary Help of Christians will welcome the visit of the Superior General of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, Mother Chiara Cazzuola, and of the Vicar General, Sister María del Rosario García Ribas, who from 5 to 20 February 2024, will also visit the places where Blessed Sister Eusebia lived. It is an opportunity to know her better and to ask her intercession for peace and for the needs of suffering humanity.