Colombia and Saint Joseph, the devotion to the ‘cord of life’

Colombia is a great focus of Josephine spirituality and the year of Saint Joseph represented a great ‘explosion’ that has not stopped. The Mothers of the Forsaken and San José de la Montaña testify to this

“Here Saint Joseph falls in love with anyone”, recounts enthusiastically mother Marissa de San José. She did so by remembering that during the year dedicated to the father of Jesus, in the midst of the pandemic, not a day went by that they did not have daily appointments with people from all over the world.

“There were thousands of devotees who came to our community looking for comfort and help, and we jokingly told them, Wow, how did you put us to work, Saint Joseph!”he expressed.

The community, which arrived in Colombia 53 years ago and today is made up of ten nuns, is present in three departments and its work extends to various apostolates: homeless girls, older adults, pregnant women, schools… and, of course, devotion to the great saint.

“From here a great faith radiates for Saint Joseph and all the spirituality around him, so much so that sisters from other countries ask us for the crowns that we make. We also serve many people on a virtual level, in a week we can have attention to devotees from China, Germany and Ireland. We promote the meetings with Saint Joseph, we send them the tape and the prayers wherever they ask us, a few days ago some of them went to Sweden, for example”Sister Marissa explained to Aleteia.

The children of Saint Joseph

As part of that Josephine spirituality, devotion to the “cordon of san joseph”,a sacramental that recalls the importance of prayer and faith to obtain great miracles. It is a ribbon that is placed around the waist of women who want to have children or pregnant women who ask for the health of the child they are expecting.

“A nun in 1656 used a cord when she was very ill and tied it saying ‘until he heals me, I won’t take it off’. She asked with great faith, she was cured and seeing the miracle. In our spirituality, the tape does not work miracles, it helps the person who wears it and the family to pray constantly and strengthen faith, what works miracles is faith“, said to Aleteia Sister Marissa.

The ribbon has the colors that are traditionally attributed to the flag of Saint Joseph and the size of Mother Petra’s miraculous Saint Joseph, an image that had a movement when the now Blessed prayed for a miracle for the sanctuary, in the middle of a of the various persecutions he has suffered.

Faith in God

The ribbon or bow of Saint Joseph does not work miracles, but it does remind families that cannot have children that they must have faith in God and helps them to be more constant in prayer to ask for that blessing.

When a family arrives at the Colombian sanctuary, in the department of Antiochthe nuns – directed by Mother Aurora, superior, have an interview with them to find out about their situation. They explain the importance of praying and persevering in faith and then the husband puts the ribbon on the woman, asking for the gift of motherhood.

Currently there ‘children of Saint Joseph of the Mountain’ throughout Colombia and their parents return with them to bear witness to the miracles of God. This is how it looks in the thousands of messages they leave and those found on social networks:

“I present to you a boy from San José de la Montaña, after two losses my son was born”.

“After 5 years of trying to get pregnant… Many days of sadness and desolation and just as someone sent from God spoke on the networks of the miracle of Saint Joseph. We had an appointment with the little sister, we prayed, we received the bond of life and after 7 months of our prayer I am pregnant”.

“Thanks to Saint Joseph who gave us a healthy and beautiful baby and a natural birth without complications.”

“I want to present to you the most precious gift that my beloved father, Saint Joseph of the Mountain, gave me. A beautiful little man that I asked him with great faith.

Other messages on networks:

written messages

This devotion is complemented by the burning of letters, which was born at the beginning of the last century when a woman asked permission to leave a letter at the feet of the saint to ask for his health and days later she returned to give thanks for his recovery.

The simple action was quickly imitated and today, more than a century later, thousands of messages written for the saint arrive at the Colombian sanctuary from the most distant countries. The letters are deposited in a trunk and burned in a special ceremony in honor of the saint.

“Go to Joseph with firm confidence”

The sanctuaries of San José de la Montaña are emblematic places dedicated to honoring the father of Jesus. The main one, the royal shrineis in Barcelona, ​​and from Spain the Mother of the Forsaken community spread to many nations.

The congregation was founded by Blessed Petra de San José, and her spiritual daughters remember her teachings and the phrases that give them strength and confidence to give everything to the saint who intercedes so that they lack nothing: “Go to Joseph with firm confidence” Y “Everything is already fixed. I don’t know how, but this blessed saint will fix it.”Mother Petra repeated.

In this way, the successors of Blessed Petra de San José continue to multiply devotion to the father of Jesus, patron of workers, families and interior life, father of obedience, welcome and tenderness.