Blessed Maria Caridad Brader

[portrait of Blessed Caritas]
Also known as
Caritas Brader
Karolina Brader Zahner
Maria Josefa Carolina Brader
Mary Charity of the Love of the Holy Spirit
Mary Josephine Caroline
María Caridad of the Holy Spirit
María Charitas of the Holy Spirit
Mother Caritas;
Memorial
27 February
Profile
The only child of Joseph Sebastian Brader and Maria Anna Carolina Zahner. Raised in a pious family, she was known as a highly intelligent child, and received the best education her parents could provide. There were high expectations for the girl's future, but instead of continued study she felt a call to the religious life. Mary Josephine joined the Franciscan convent at Maria Hilf, Alstatten 1 October 1880, taking the name Mary Charity of the Love of the Holy Spirit, and making her final vows on 22 August 1882.

She was initially assigned as a teacher. When it became possible for cloistered nuns to work as missionaries, Sister Caritas volunteered to be one of the first six sisters to work in Chone, Ecuador in 1888. She worked for five years as a teacher and children's catechist. In 1893 she was transferred to Tùquerres, Colombia where conditions were rough but where she taught the faith to the poor and outcast.

To prepare additional missionaries she founded the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary Immaculate in Tuquerres, Colombia on 31 March 1893. Initially composes of young Swiss girls with a call to missionary work, they were soon joined by Colombian and other local women. Caritas served as Superior General for the Congregation from 1893 to 1919, and again from 1928 to 1940. The Sisters emphasized good education for themselves and their charges, and deep prayer lives for everyone. They received papal approval in 1933, and today work in Central and South America, Mexico, Switzerland, Mali, Romania and the United States.
Born
14 August 1860 in Kaltbrunn, Switzerland as Maria Josefa Carolina Brader at Kaltbrunn, Saint Gallen, Switzerland
Died
27 February 1943 in Pasto, Colombia of natural causes; her grave immediately became a site for pilgrimage and popular devotion
Venerated
29 June 1999 by Pope John Paul II
Beatified
23 March 2003 by Pope John Paul II
Canonized
pending; if you have information relevant to the canonization of Blessed Marie contact
   Hermanas Franciscanas de Maria Inmaculada
   Carrera 79, N. 40A-20
   Barrio Modelia, Aptdo. 98892
   Bogotá, COLOMBIA
Additional Information
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Readings
It is His will

- Blessed Caritas
The better educated, the greater the skills the educator possesses, the more she will be able to do for our holy religion and the glory of God, especially when virtue is the vanguard of her knowledge. The more intense and visible her external activity, the deeper and more fervent her interior life must be.

- Blessed Caritas
See God's will in everything, and to do His will with joy, out of love of Him.

- Blessed Caritas
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