April 27, Blessed María Antonia Bandrés Elósegui, Hija de Jesus.
Today we celebrate the feast of Antoñita, whom we affectionately know, our Blessed María Antonia Bandrés, Hija de Jesus (Tolosa, 6 March 1898 – Salamanca, 27 April 1919).,
This year 2025, the feast of Antoñita is connected with other celebrations and events. We are invited to approach the ‘interweaving of these threads’ of happenings and their meaning for our lives.
- It is the second Sunday of Easter
- It is Divine Mercy Sunday.
- Our beloved Pope Francis has just been buried.
- April 27th, the Jubilee Year Pilgrims of Hope. Jubilee of Adolescents.
- One week has passed since the beginning of GCXXIX. With Him, pathway of Hope.
- And it is the feast day of Blessed Mª Antonia Bandrés (Antoñita), patron saint of the Hijas de Jesus in initial formation and model of life for FASFI.
This year, 2025, the feast of Antoñita is connected with other celebrations and events. We are invited to approach the ‘interweaving of these threads’ of happenings and their meaning for our lives.
To discover where Antoñita’s love and service for the poor come from can help each one of us to want to know ourselves better, to grow as people and to realize that we define our lives on what we do with what we are because our qualities and limits placed at the service of good and commitment to our growth process can give a lot of love and help many people..
The first characteristic of Antoñita’s temperament, which the testimonies pointed out and more frequently by her relatives, is her extreme sensitivity. It was a sensitivity that, with all its richness and gifts, was also a real nuisance to those who lived with her. Her mother, at one moment out of fatigue, exclaimed: “Oh, my daughter, how much will you suffer with that character, what an annoying little girl!
Her mother was not wrong to sense that her daughter would suffer in life, but she was mistaken in attributing the main cause of that suffering to her way of being. Maria Antonia overcame herself so that her behavior became pleasant to everyone who approached her.
What made her suffer was her great sensitivity. Her heart, which had a “strong feeling for things,” passionate and always wide open for others and God, could hardly remain indifferent. But equally, that same sensitivity endowed her with a richness she knew how to make the most of.
There is no doubt that sensitivity is a gift because it enables us to dialogue with reality, both our internal reality and that which is beyond ourselves, because it allows us to tune in to everything that surrounds us and become aware of it; because it gives us intuition and empathy with the needs, desires and feelings of others. She “felt things very much,” they said of her, and for that reason, feeling them as her own, she quickly moved to comfort, help, advise, or even break social barriers.
A witness tells us:
“There was a nasty old woman in the village who used to go to church at night. Everyone would run away from her, but Antoñita would go up to her and with a matchstick she would light her prayer book to help her read from it. She would take the book and read it to her. When she met the poor or the elderly in the street, she always had a word of comfort for them.
“‘There was a practice that when going to school, the non-paying girls went on one side of the street and the paying girls went on the other (…) Antoñita accompanied the poor girls on her side“
Many testimonies tell us of her willingness to serve and to work, whatever work, at any time, and without distinction of persons. She did not seek recognition; she desired to serve everyone and the better, for that was what her beloved Jesus had done, and was one of the privileged ways of resembling Him. She was absolutely available at home with her parents, maids, with her friends, and the workers in the labor union, and anyone in need.
“She was a real hard worker. She always liked to help the maids, and how well she did it” (…) she was constantly helping the girls (…) when we thought she was asleep, she would get up and go to the kitchen to help them clean the dishes, shoes, etcetera”.
Antoñita’s mother introduced her to the realm of work. Among the various labor unions operating was the Catholic labor union, in which she did social work. She worked with enthusiasm in the training of the workers: in the early hours of the night, she attended to about twenty young women workers. She taught them how to read and write, do needlework and other household chores, and introduced them to religious songs and Basque folklore, thus breaking the rhythm of more monotonous chores. But that was not all: through this study center, she got to know them personally, became friends, and learned about their problems. She took an interest in each one of them.
She also gave catechetical classes to those workers who wanted them: she wasted no opportunity to bring people closer to God. And how naturally she did it! She gave the best of herself to this work.
What does this aspect of Antoñita’s life reflect about you? What do you feel invited to do?
