Sister Dulce - The Good Angel of Bahia

Sister Dulce's canonization takes place on October 13th, 2019 in Rome, ruled by Pope Francis. She was a Brazilian Catholic Franciscan Sister who was the founder of the Obras Sociais Irmã Dulce also known as Irmã Dulce’s Social Work (www.irmadulce.org.br). Sister Dulce was the second daughter of dentist Augusto Lopes Pontes, professor at the School of Dentistry, and Dulce Maria Lopes Pontes. She was born on May 26, 1914, in Salvador and named Maria Rita de Souza Brito Lopes Pontes. At age seven, in 1921, she lost her mother Dulce, who was only 26 years old. The following year, with her brothers Augusto and Dulce (the dear Dulcinha), she received her first holy communion. The vocation to work for the needy was the direct influence of the family, especially of her aunts. At age 13, fearlessness and sense of justice were revealed as striking traits, and she began to receive beggars and the sick in her home, transforming the family residence. On February 8, 1933, shortly after her graduation as a teacher, Maria Rita then joins the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God in the city of São Cristóvão, Sergipe. On August 13, 1933, she received the nun's habit of the Missionary Sisters and adopted, in honor of her mother, the name of Sister Dulce. Sister Dulce's first mission as a nun was to teach at a school run by her congregation. But her thoughts were ever on working with the poor. In 1939, Sister Dulce occupied five abandoned houses on Rat’s Island to house the sick she gathered in the streets of Salvador. Expelled from the place, she pilgrimaged for a decade, taking her patients to various parts of the city. Finally, in 1949, Sister Dulce occupied a chicken coop with the first 70 patients next to the Santo Antônio Convent, after authorization from her superior. She built the largest hospital in Bahia from a simple chicken coop. As early as 1959, the Irmã Dulce’s Social Worker Dulce was officially established and the following year the Albergue Santo Antônio, a refuge for the homeless, was inaugurated. Having met the Pope John Paul II once in 1980 during his first visit to Brazil, Sister Dulce and the Pontiff would meet again on October 20, 1991, on his return visit to Brazil. John Paul II made a point of breaking the rigor of his agenda and went to the Santo Antônio Convent to visit the nun, whose health was already very weak due to respiratory problems. Five months after the Pope's visit, the Bahia people would mourn the death of the Good Angel of Bahia. Sister Dulce died on March 13, 1992, shortly before her 78th birthday. The fragility with which she lived the last 30 years of her life - 70% of her breathing capacity compromised - did not prevent her from building and maintaining one of the largest and most respected philanthropic institutions in the country, a true work of love for the poor and sick. Canonized with 4 other saints, Sister Dulce was the first woman born in Brazil to ever be canonized. This was one of the fastest canonizations in modern history; only Madre Teresa of Calcutta (19 years prior) and Pope John Paul I (9 years prior) were canonized faster than her.


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