Maria Bernarda Bütler

19 May

María Bernarda Bütler (28 May 1848 – 19 May 1924), born Verena Bütler, was a Swiss religious sister. She founded the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Sinners and served in the missions in Ecuador and Colombia. Bütler worked for the care of the poor in these places until her exile from Ecuador and entrance into Colombia where she worked for the remainder of her life. The congregation moved there with her, and continued to expand during her time there until her death.^[1]

Bütler was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 29 October 1995, and canonised by Pope Benedict XVI on 12 October 2008.^[2]

Life

Verena Bütler was born in mid-1848 in

Bütler made her

in 1866 but left it after a brief period in order to return home and to discern her true calling.

Bütler joined the Franciscan Capuchin nuns at the convent of Mary Help of Sinners in Altstätten – at the encouragement of her local pastor – on 12 November 1867. On 4 May 1868, she assumed the habit, taking the religious name María Bernarda of the Heart of Mary.^[3] She made her solemn profession on 4 October 1871. She served as novice mistress from 1879 to 1880 and the superior of her house from 1880 until 1886.^[4]

At the invitation of Pedro Schumacher, the Bishop of Portoviejo, Bütler left for the missions in Ecuador on 19 June 1888 with six others and arrived on 29 July; there, she founded a religious congregation, the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Sinners. In 1895 the period of anti-religious sentiment forced her and her fellow religious out of Ecuador to Colombia; she and fourteen others received an invitation from Bishop Eugenio Biffi to work in Cartagena in Colombia and Biffi received them on 2 August 1895.^[1][2] Her order received diocesan approval on 12 January 1912 as well as the decree of praise and papal approval from Pope Pius XI on 30 April 1929 and 5 July 1938. The order was aggregated to the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin on 26 June 1905.

Bütler died in mid-1924. The pastor of the cathedral announced her death: "A saint has died in this city this morning: the reverend Mother Bernarda!".^[4] Her remains were later relocated in 1956. In 2005 there were 788 religious in a total of 125 houses.^[2]

Canonization

The sainthood process opened in Cartagena in an informative process that opened in 1949 and later concluded in 1952 while a team of theologians collated and approved all of her spiritual works and other writings on 8 May 1959; the formal introduction to the cause came under

on 26 February 1982.

The C.C.S. received the

. The beatification miracle was the rebuilding of missing cranial bones of the 15-day-old Liliana Sanchez in 1969. Rosmarie Wicki-Bütler and Burkard Bütler – her grandniece and grandnephew – represented the family at the 1995 beatification.

The second miracle was investigated in 2003 in Cartagena and later received validation on 15 October 2004. The medical board approved it on 23 March 2006 as did theologians on 1 December 2006 and the C.C.S. on 17 April 2007.

. The miracle was the 2 July 2002 cure of Myrna Jazime Correa from severe respiratory complications.

References

External links

• Hagiography Circle
• Saints SQPN
• Pope canonizes four new saints