{"id":26239,"date":"2025-04-08T20:36:07","date_gmt":"2025-04-08T19:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/?p=26239"},"modified":"2025-04-16T18:13:52","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T17:13:52","slug":"75th-anniversary-of-venerable-maria-teresa-quevedo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2025\/04\/75th-anniversary-of-venerable-maria-teresa-quevedo\/","title":{"rendered":"75th Anniversary of Venerable Maria Teresa Quevedo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ven<\/a><\/p>\n

Venerable Maria Teresa Quevedo: The \u201cPrincess\u201d who was \u201ca Slave to the Queen\u201d (d. April 8, 1950)<\/b>
\nVenerable Maria Teresa Quevedo was born on April 14, 1930 (not April 12, as is sometimes said), in Madrid, Spain. She was a strong-willed little girl. She knew what she liked and what she didn\u2019t. If a certain dish, for example, did not meet her standards, a passionate\"Ven<\/a> \u201cNo me gusta!\u201d could be heard from the dinner table.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat does \u2018disobedient\u2019 mean?\u201d<\/b>
\nWhat was<\/i> to her liking was a certain toy that she saw a little boy playing with one day. She asked, but did not obtain. A wee slap to the face followed. The \u201cdisobedient\u201d little Maria Teresa was reprimanded. \u201cWhat does disobedient mean?\u201d she asked Daria (who was minding her). \u201cIt means that you have hurt our Blessed Mother!\u201d<\/p>\n

Little did Daria know the measure of grace that God would attach to this off-hand comment of hers. Maria Teresa was distraught. She could hardly bear the thought of having wounded a Mother so good. Thereafter, she was often founding praying in earnest before Her statue in the family home. The beginning of what would become a passionate love for Our Lady had begun.<\/p>\n

The Key to Her Sanctity<\/b>
\nAlthough one could say much about Maria Teresa\u2019s character, her virtues, and her religious life, we feel compelled \u2013 time limitations aside \u2013 to draw attention to the key to her sanctity: a filial love of the Mother of Fair Love.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>When Maria Teresa entered the Carmelites, this love was evident to all who lived with her, as it was to her friends and family. Prior to her entrance to religious life, for instance, her cousin, Angelines (Nines), had once asked her about her love of Our Lord. \u201cI love Our Lord,\u201d she replied, \u201cwith all my heart. But He wants me to love Our Lady in a special way<\/i> and to go to Him with my hand in Mary\u2019s.<\/i> My affection for Her is like that of a tiny child<\/i> for its mother.<\/i> You know, Nines, how a baby clings to his mother\u2019s skirt when he is learning to walk? Well, that is the way Our Lord wants me to cling to Our Lady\u2019s blue mantle.\u201d (emphasis added)<\/p>\n

To cling to Mary, the Mediatrix of all Graces: this was the formula for her sanctity, at least in practice. The same can be said for Bl. Edward Poppe, for whom this intention was explicit: \u201cThe constant application of Mary\u2019s mediation dominates my entire spiritual life. I remain united to Mary, <\/i>I call upon Her to help me in my difficulties, and I contemplate Jesus in the Sacred Host with Her eyes and Her Heart.\u201d<\/i> (Quoted in The Arduous Ascent<\/i>) Similarly, Venerable Maria Teresa Quevedo could say: \u201cMy life must be with Christ, in Christ, for Christ \u2013 with Our Lady at my side.\u201d<\/i>
\n<\/i>
\n<\/i>\u201cI must keep my hand in that of Our Lady,\u201d she once said, \u201cin order to be able to please Her Son. <\/i>Only with my hand in Hers can I be confident that I shall reach Heaven.\u201d<\/i> (emphasis added) Such confidence, such simplicity<\/i> \u2013 which her uncle, Fr Jes\u00fas Quevedo, S.J., called \u201cher outstanding characteristic\u201d \u2013 was evidently not the fruit of headwork, so much as it was of union with Our Lady. (St. Gemma Galgani, too, was praised for her admirable simplicity, which, according to Fr Germanus, her spiritual director, was her dominant spiritual trait.)<\/p>\n

The Feast of the Assumption in Heaven\"Ven<\/a><\/b>
\nDuring Community recreation one evening in 1949 \u2013 the year before the proclamation of the Dogma of the Blessed Virgin Mary\u2019s Assumption \u2013 Sr Maria Teresa blurted something out that probably surprised her as much as it did her Sisters. She said that Mary was preparing a special favour for her. What was it? The Sisters were desperate to know. After much begging, she relented: \u201cSisters, I believe I am going to celebrate the new Dogma in Heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laughter followed, as did more questioning. The time would come when this prophecy would be fulfilled, for Sr Maria Teresa was to die the following year on April 8, 1950 (75 years ago today). Her lasts words are a fitting end to a life spent in the service of the Queen of Heaven, whose ravishing countenance filled the dying nun with unspeakable joy. We will not spoil the ending, however, for those who do not already know it. In any case, her life is well worth reading in full (her only English biography is entitled Mary Was Her Life<\/em>).<\/p>\n

\u201cFig Monday\u201d\"Ven<\/a><\/b>
\nNext Monday, the Monday of Holy Week (Monday, April 14, 2025) will be \u201cfig Monday,\u201d on which Our Lord is believed to have cursed the barren fig tree. Next time you hear this Gospel, remember this consoling word of Venerable Maria Teresa Quevedo (born April 14, <\/i>1930), which is taken from a letter to the Blessed Virgin that she composed during her postulancy: \u201cDearest Mother Mary: Today one of the Sisters asked me how I could say I hoped to become a saint. I answered her: \u2018I do not say it boastfully as you seem to infer, Sister. I say it because I am confident that my Holy Mother wants to make a saint of her poor, weak child who, of herself, will never be worth a fig.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Reflection:<\/b>
\nSt Gemma Galgani\u2019s adopted mother once made the following remark: \u201cWith Gemma at my side, I rest, I find myself refreshed, and no longer feel the weight of my work, nor the bitterness of disagreeables.\u201d If such is the case when St Gemma is present, what abundance of grace will be given to the soul who, like Venerable Maria Teresa Quevedo, walks with Mary at her side!\"Ven<\/a><\/p>\n

Source:
\nSister Mary Pierre, R.S.M., Mary Was Her Life: The Story of a Nun, Sister Maria Teresa Quevedo, 1930-1950<\/i> (Benziger Brothers, Inc., New York, 1960)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Venerable Maria Teresa Quevedo: The \u201cPrincess\u201d who was \u201ca Slave to the Queen\u201d (d. April 8, 1950) Venerable Maria Teresa Quevedo was born on April 14, 1930 (not April 12, as is sometimes said), in Madrid, Spain. She was a strong-willed little girl. She knew what she liked and what she didn\u2019t. If a certain <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":589,"featured_media":26240,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[428],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-heavenly-friends"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Screenshot-2025-04-08-at-18-59-56-Google-Search.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paVypq-6Pd","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26239"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/589"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26239"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26251,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26239\/revisions\/26251"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}