The Church in Colombia is preparing to celebrate on Saturday the beatification of Mother María Berenice Duque Hencker, religious founder of three congregations and who “all her life lived the joy of the Gospel in a radical way”, serving the most forgotten.
Mother Maria Berenice Duke. Credit: Courtesy Little Sisters of the Annunciation.
The nun was born in the department of Caldas on August 14, 1898, and died in Medellín on July 25, 1993. Her beatification was authorized by Pope Francis on October 13, 2021.
This ceremony will take place in Medellin on October 29 and will be presided over by the prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, Cardinal Marcello Semeraro.
Sister Flor María Martínez, of the Congregation of the Little Sisters of the Annunciation, stressed that the beatification of its founder “leaves a message of peace, of joy, of Christian commitment.”
“In all aspects, Mother Berenice was a woman of the Church, who loved God dearly, who gave herself to Him in service to others and especially in service to the most abandoned and forgotten in society,” she told ACI Press.
“She was a woman who all her life lived the joy of the Gospel in a radical way. So, I think the message is that this is also possible in each one of us. To live and also make possible that life of holiness to which the Lord invites us”, she expressed.
The founding work of Mother Maria Berenice
The Little Sisters of the Annunciation is the first congregation founded by the future blessed in 1943, who “work in a special way with children, youth and families; also in parishes, in schools, we have boarding schools, in some mission places”, indicated Sister Flor María.
In 1957 came the foundation of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Jesus and Mary, who are dedicated to pastoral work in mission places.
Finally, in 1964, Mother Berenice founded the Missionary Brothers of the Annunciation, the male branch that works “in the vulnerable places of society, of abandoned children, they also work with prisoners, with marginalized people of the society”.
But in addition, the religious indicated, there is apostolic work with “a group of laity who join our charism and our Eucharistic and Marian spirituality.”
This, thanks to the fact that at the end of 1965 the future blessed conceived “the idea of organizing the Lay Annunciates, preparing them spiritually in the charism of the Annunciation, to carry out apostolic missions and serve as support for the mission of the Little Sisters”.
Sister Flor María Martínez explained that “the idea is that in each community where we are there is a small group of lay people announcing and that they also be strengthened in the faith; and that living from the sources of the Annunciata spirituality, they are evangelizers in the Church”.
Within the laity are “the groups of the Annunciation Youth, which are the young people of our educational works, of the communities where we are present” and that “work from the Eucharistic and Marian spirituality of the Sisters of the Annunciation”.
Preparing for beatification
In her statements to ACI Prensa, the nun pointed out that during these weeks they have had “several activities in a spiritual and congregational way”, especially in Medellín, where the mother house of the congregation is located.
One of these was the meeting of religious life that was held on October 22, in organization with the Archdiocese of Medellín, “in the convent, in the Mother House.”
Likewise, tomorrow, Thursday, “several sisters are going to profess their perpetual vows” and the golden and silver wedding anniversary of the consecrated life of some of the nuns will be celebrated, he said.
Finally, Sister Flor María indicated, the day after the beatification “there will be a Eucharist of thanksgiving at the Mother House, in Medellín.”
From this Saturday the Church in Colombia will have a new Blessed