Today we celebrate the birth of St. Candida Maria de Jesus on May 31, 1845.
Let her help you to look at your roots with the gaze of God, who looks at and accompanies the joys and the difficulties and wounds you have had, as a possibility of growth and Life. You were born wrapped in his Love and to love.
A small window on the road
| Ara, ni jaio nintzen etxe zaharra. What’s up, Ama Kandida? Bai, lehio txiki hartantxe. | Look, the old house where I was born. Were you born there, M. Candida? Yes, in that small window. |
Juana Josefa, when she was already Cándida Mª de Jesús, foundress of the Daughters of Jesus, on a train trip from Tolosa to San Sebastián, while passing through Andoain, pointing out the farmhouse of Berrospe, expressed these words to the sister who accompanied her:
Look, the old house where I was born… Yes, in that little window.
Everything in M. Candida is small, it is of “the littleness of God”… Candida is small, it is of “the littleness of God”….
Thanks to the spontaneity and simplicity of M. Candida, who shared with Sr. Candida, who shared with the sister about her roots, every generation, from all over the world, looks at that house and that little window with unction, gratitude and affection.
It can also help us to remember our origin, where I was born? does that place still exist? what do I feel when I pass by it again or think about it? what “little windows” indicate who I am? from what “little windows” do I open myself to Life?
Juana Josefa’s Home
About the place where M. Candida was born, we also have a beautiful testimony of M. Natalia Bandrés Elósegui. Cándida, we also have a beautiful testimony from M. Natalia Bandrés Elósegui. Do these surnames ring a bell? Yes, she was the blood sister of our dear Antoñita and was also a Daughter of Jesus. She lived much longer than she did and around 1930 she was in charge, together with Sr. Consolación Irigoyen, of the restoration work of the house where M. Candida was born. Cándida, when by donation of Mr. Juan Olazábal, who made a great effort for it, “BERROSPE” became the property of the Daughters of Jesus. She told us that:
“I know that M. Candida was born on May 31, 1845 in Berrospe, a hamlet of the town of Andoain, in Guipuzcoa and was born precisely in the little room that is marked with a tombstone according to the testimony of the daughters of an old woman who had heard it from Mother Candida; and I myself, when the farmhouse was being restored, saw the elders of the place gathered together, who indicated the same place and, wanting to verify it, the architect said that, according to the use of the ancient Basques, the room of the birth should be next to the kitchen. […] The architect casually made a chipping in the wall and the sign of the kitchen hearth appeared.”
What people are references in your life, witnesses of your roots, of your childhood? What do you thank them for? Who have helped you grow in identity?
Watercress: Living Testimony
The family of Juana Josefa Cipitria y Barriola was of modest condition, belonging to those popular classes made up of peasants, day laborers, artisans and workers who then constituted approximately 95% of Spanish society. “His parents were weavers by trade and good Christians.”
That first-born daughter of Juan Miguel de Cipitria y Aramburu and María Jesús Barriola y Querejeta, who on May 31, 1845, at 6 o’clock in the morning, saw the first light between the solid walls of the old Tower-House of Berrospe, in Andoain, had pure Cantabrian blood on all four sides, as her four surnames were Basque.
And with the blood and the name, a family environment in which religious reciedumbre, generosity, deep affection, piety and all the human and spiritual virtues, typical of that people, would serve as support for the development of the concrete qualities with which God had blessed this girl who was called Juana Josefa.
What family, social and cultural values are the basis of your person? What helps you to take care of them and make them grow and bear fruit?
Baptism: God’s first gift
Evident proof of the Christian fervor of this Andoaindarra family is the fact that they had their daughter baptized on the same day of her birth.
This happy coincidence of having been born to natural life and to the life of grace on the same day, May 31, and the celebration on this date of the feast of the Mother of Fair Love, we could say that it was like a good omen of what the Virgin was going to represent throughout the whole life of M. Candida since her childhood and that she also imprinted in the heart of the Daughters of Jesus of all times. Candida since her childhood and that she also imprinted in the hearts of the Daughters of Jesus of all times.1
What meaning does your baptism have for you today? What experience expresses to you the beginning of your life of faith, of your spiritual experience? What meaning does the saint or commemoration of the day you were born have for you? What does your name express about you and your mission in the world? Who is the Virgin Mary for you?
As Saint Candida used to say: “Blessed be God who loves us so much” …
Be thankful for your story, whatever it is… be very thankful… be thankful for everything in God.
- Taken from the “Biography of the Servant of God Mother Candida Maria de Jesus (Juana Josefa Cipitria y Barriola) founder of the Congregation of the Daughters of Jesus (May 31, 1845 – August 9, 1912) written by Maria del Carmen de Frias Tomero FI (p. 13-15). ↩︎
