Servants of St. Joseph
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Siervas de San José | |
Bonifacia Rodríguez-Castro | |
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The Servants of St. Joseph (
.Foundation
Bonifacia Rodríguez was born in Salamanca on June 6, 1837, in a small home on Las Mazas Street near the ancient University. Her father was a tailor and the family was very poor, frequently having to move because he was unable to pay the rent. From a very young age, Bonifacia helped her father with his craft, by sewing some of the work he was able to get, as well as caring for her younger siblings.
After completing basic schooling, Bonifacia began to work as a
After five years as an independent
Bonifacia opened her workshop as a meeting place for gatherings of working women like herself, both for socializing and for times of reflection on the themes and issues of the day. They invited Father Butinyà to these gatherings, and, under his guidance, they established themselves as the Association of the Immaculate Conception and St. Joseph. Gradually, Rodríguez felt herself called to
A new congregation
Rodríguez took up the challenge and six of her companions moved into her small home to form a religious community, with her as their leader. This took place on January 10, 1874. It was a troubled time in Spanish society, one of great civil unrest and violence at the height of the First Spanish Republic. Butinyà wrote a short Rule of Life for the small community, in which he envisioned them demonstrating, through their lives, that there was a fraternity in labor; they would create spaces where workers could become free and critical observers of their society. Bonifacia Rodríguez developed a deep trust in this vision and maintained a strong sense of her life as an imitation of that of St. Joseph, who worked quietly building a home in Nazareth. This was the vision that sustained her throughout her life.
This trust was needed, as the community faced the loss of Butinyà and his support when, the following April, he was expelled from Spain along with all the other members of the
The Republic fell a year after the Congregation was formed and the monarchy returned to power. A period of peace came to the nation as a result. The Church felt secure again and sought to return to traditional modes of operation. A new
In 1878, the bishop appointed
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.
Expansion and division
Butinyà's period of exile had ended with the return of the monarchy, so he returned to his native
A union of the Catalan houses with that in Salamanca was proposed by Butinyà in 1882. This time, in response to this, Mother Bonifacia was able to travel to that region to begin the process for this. After her visit to the different houses to meet and get to know the Catalan Sisters, she met Butinyà in Zaragoza. While there, she received a letter from the community in Salamanca, in which the writer had signed herself as "Superior". Thus Rodríguez received notice of her removal from office. Upon her return to the house, she encountered only rejection and insults. Deciding that there was no good way to deal with this situation, Rodríguez petitioned the bishop to establish a new house of the Congregation in the city of Zamora. She left Salamanca with her mother on July 25, 1883, never to live there again.
In that period, Zamora was far more of an agricultural environment that Salamanca. The pair found hospitality with a local
By November of that year, the small group was able to establish their own home in the city, where they began again to establish the project, setting up a workshop whereby they could earn their living and providing a gathering place for their collaborators in the mission. They were desperately poor, but persevered. In the meantime, they received frequent communications from Butinyà, who encouraged them in their perseverance.
Back in Salamanca, García Repila was leading the Congregation there away from the commitment to manual labor which Butinyà and Rodríguez had seen as fundamental to their way of life, both spiritually and in identifying with their neighbors. This advanced to the point where, in August 1884, Bishop Martínez modified the Constitutions written in 1882 by Butinyà to remove this as an element of their daily lives. Rodríguez and Butinyà continued writing them frequently, but their only reply was silence. At that point, Rodríguez decided that the only future lay with the proposed union with the Catalan houses.
She made another trip to Catalunya in 1886, accompanied by Sister Soccoro. Following this, she made a visit to the House of St. Teresa in Salamanca, to see one last time if a complete union of all the communities might be possible. She saw that there was a total lack of interest in this on the part of the Sisters in Salamanca. Thus the proposed union never came to be. The Catalan communities went on to form an independent congregation, the Daughters of St. Joseph.
A new foundation
Despite the obstacles they endured, the small community in Zamora was able to obtain a larger house. Donations from friends of Father Butinyà enable them to buy new equipment for their work. In this new house, they were able to expand to the point where this industrial work was able to sustain not only the Servants, but the young girls they had begun to take in and teach a trade. They used this building as a center of industrial training and development of the minds and hearts of their young charges.
On July 2, 1901, the Congregation received formal
Mother Bonifacia decided to make one final attempt to achieve a reconciliation. She went personally to Salamanca. There she was denied admission and ignored by the members of the community. She returned to Zamora and continued her life there, quietly working with the young girls and women of the city. She died on 8 August 1905.
Legacy
Apart from Spain, the Servants of St. Joseph currently (2010) also have communities in Argentina, Bolivia, Peru,[1] Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Italy, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, and Vietnam. Four books have been published by the sisters.[2]
The Philippines
Upon the invitation of Mons. James McCloskey, the Bishop of
Bonifacia declared a saint
In 2011, the
See also
- Holy Family
- Saint Joseph
- Sisters of St. Joseph
- Society of Jesus
References
- ^ "Siervas de San José eligieron nuevo Equipo Provincial". www.crp-conferperu.org. Retrieved 2018-07-29.
- ^ "Todos los libros de la editorial Siervas De San Jose". www.todostuslibros.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2018-07-29.
- ^ a b "Siervas de San Jose". Archived from the original on 2008-03-17. Retrieved 2008-03-18.
- ^ "Bonifacia Rodríguez Castro (1837-1905)". Retrieved 2008-03-18.
External links
- Servants of St. Joseph (in Spanish) [1]