Rome (Italy). In the year 2022 the two patron saints of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians share a 400th anniversary: March 12, 2022 marks the 400th anniversary of the canonization of Saint Teresa of Jesus and December 28, 2022 will celebrate the 400th anniversary of the birth of Saint Francis de Sales in heaven. From the dates it can be deduced that St. Francis de Sales saw the glorification of St. Teresa on earth, more than nine months before his death.
Rarely does an anniversary happen that unites the two Patron Saints of the FMA Institute not only with each other, but also with the members of the Salesian Family, the Society of St. Francis de Sales, and numerous other religious families: the Discalced Carmelites, the Company of Jesus, the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, the Order of the Visitation, the Daughters of St. Francis de Sales, the Oblates and the Oblate Sisters of St. Francis de Sales. The year 2022 offers this unusual treasure.
Sr. Sylwia Ciężkowska, FMA, Vice-postulator of the canonization processes of the FMA Institute, says that “It is interesting to remember that they were contemporaries in life for 15 years, since Francis was born in 1567 and Teresa died in 1582. He knew her from reading her works, already translated into the French language at that time and, thanks to her, he understood the female soul better”.
There are several initiatives linked to St. Francis de Sales this year, including the Strenna of the Rector Major of the Salesians of Don Bosco, Fr. Ángel Fernández Artime, “Do everything through love, nothing through constraint” and the exhibition ‘Francis of Sales 400’ at Don Bosco House Museum in Turin-Valdocco, while the Teresian anniversary runs the risk of going unnoticed. Moreover, St. Teresa broadens the horizon to another four saints, canonized on the same day together with her, the only woman in this group:
“The celebration of March 12, 1622 was a novelty in the history of the Catholic Church. It was the first collective canonization, until then the Saints had only been canonized individually. In St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Gregory XV proclaimed the holiness of Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556), founder of the Jesuits; of Francis Xavier (1506-1552), missionary, one of the first companions of Ignatius; of Teresa of Jesus (1515-1582), religious and mystic, founder of the Discalced Carmelite nuns and friars; of Philip Neri (1515-1595), priest, founder of the Oratorians; and of Isidore the Farmer (1079-1172), the only lay person in the group and patron saint of Madrid, whose canonization, supported by the King of Spain, was the first to be decided. With that ceremony, the Pontiff of the time recognized the key role assumed by the new religious orders in evangelization” (Cf. Iacopo Scaramuzzi, ignatius500.global).
On the initiative of the Society of Jesus, within the Ignatian Year, on 12 March 2022 at 17:00, in the Church of Jesus in Rome which houses the relics of their Holy Founder and of St. Francis Xavier, Pope Francis, a Jesuit, presides over a solemn Eucharistic Celebration for the 400th anniversary of the first collective canonization. Concelebrating are: the Archbishop of Madrid, Card. Carlos Osorio Sierra, and the superiors of the religious orders involved: Fr. Arturo Sosa SJ (Jesuit), Fr. Miguel Márquez Calle OCD (Discalced Carmelites), Fr. Mìceàl O’Neill OCarm (Carmelite), and Fr. Michele Nicolis CO (Oratorian).
It is an anniversary that the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians cannot overlook, in particular in the 150th anniversary of the foundation of the Institute, recalling that Don Bosco gave St. Teresa to the FMA as Patroness and model of female holiness from the very first text of the Constitutions. Her legacy remains a treasure yet to be discovered.
