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Mother Ascension
Nicol co-foundress of the
Dominican Missionary Sisters of the Rosary
 Florentina
Nicol who later became Sr. Ascension was born on 14th
March 1868 at Tafalla, Spain.
She was the youngest of four children. At the age of 14
she was admitted in the boarding school run by the
Dominican Sisters where, she learnt Home Management and
Embroidery. After three years, realizing that she had a
vocation to religious life entered the novitiate. After
her years of formation she worked for 28 years as a
teacher with dedication and fidelity. From missionary
magazines she learnt about the plight of the poor in
distant lands. This evoked in her a desire to serve such
hapless people in missionary lands.
When Sr. Ascension was 44
years old, she met Msgr. Ramon Zubieta OP. the Apostolic
Vicar of Porto Maldonado who spoke of the urgency of
having Sisters in the mission to work with women. With
the permission of her superiors, she offered her
services in this distant mission. The first missionary
expedition of five sisters led by Sr. Ascension began in
November 1913 and they reached Peru on 30th
December after a long and tedious journey by ship.
Political havoc and lack of finance made them settle for
sometime in the convent of the Dominican Beatas in
Patrocinio, Lima.
Finally in 1915 Msgr. Zubieta, an expert
in difficult missionary travels and expeditions
accompanied them to their mission land. They were the
first women missionaries to penetrate the Peruvian
jungle. They reached Maldonado after crossing the Andes and navigating dangerous rivers. The Sisters were
received with joy. In no time they opened a school for
the poor children of the area. Very soon they built a
boarding school for these poor children. Now that the
Sisters were on the spot they became aware of the clash
between the indigenous people and the rubber plantation
workers. The Sisters put their lot with the former. Even
though their school was opened to all, they gave
preference to indigenous people.
Later on, their apostolate
diversified according to the urgent needs of the people.
Sr. Ascension worked relentlessly for an over-all change
in the oppressive society of her day through education,
health care and integral formation. The life style of
the Sisters saw a complete change. Their apostolic
activities did not fit in with the original Charism of
the Congregation. Besides, the communication gap due to
geographical reasons was too great for effective
functioning. Mother General and her team with the advice
of Senior Dominican Fathers suggested that the Sisters
form themselves into another Institute with Msgr.
Zubieta as the Founder and Sr. Ascension as the co-foundress
even though neither of them had set out with the idea of
founding a new religious Congregation.
Hence the Congregation of the Dominican
Missionary Sisters of the Rosary was born on 5th
October 1918. Sr. Ascension was elected as the first
General of the new Congregation. She placed all her
trust in God’s providence. Her spirit of sacrifice, her
unconditional love for people, her constant search for
the Will of God and the courage to follow it
unflinchingly effected her sanctification. She always
showed a great devotion to God and to her mission. She
felt that God walked with those people. She
dialogued with Him in the days spent traveling by boat
or in a canoe or riding a donkey. Above all, she
experienced meeting God in the girls who lived in the
forests, in the sick she had to care for, and in the
women who lived lives so different from what she had
known before. The experience of God was so strong that
she said: “I cannot explain
what the soul feels…Never have I felt so close to God as
in my sixteen months in the mountains”.
Mother Ascension died in the odour of
sanctity on 24th February 1940. She was
beatified on 14th May 2005 by H.H. Pope
Benedict XVI and became Blessed Ascension Nicol for the
whole Universal
Church.
The hard work of our
Founders Msgr. Zubieta and Blessed Ascension Nicol are
spread out to the whole world. Now the Congregation is
well spread out in five continents, with 130 communities
of Missionary Sisters who strive to make real in our
lives the option of our Founders for the most needy
through the Charism of evangelize the poor in those
missionary situations where the Church needs us most. |
