by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
Let us conclude the story of Mother Helena [Mother Helena Maria do Sacramento]. Remarkable apparitions favored her soul amid her austerities at the Recollection of Saint Teresa. In one of these, the Lord appeared to her “as the Good Shepherd, surrounded by many sheep, one on his shoulders, others in his arms, others trying to climb up his body, and said to her: ‘Here are my sheep who are looking for a sheepfold … and cannot find it because, while being able, you do not want to provide them with one by founding a convent in fulfillment of my will'” (Frei Galvão, Bandeirante de Cristo [Friar Galvão, Pioneer of Christ], Editora Vozes, 1954, p. 53). With these affectionate words, Our Lord asked Sister Helena to found a convent.
He was asking her to do the impossible. Indeed, since 1764, the wicked Marquis of Pombal, minister of King José I, had prohibited the founding of new convents on Portuguese Crown lands.
Whom should she obey? The will of God or the civil authority that persecuted the religious state? In principle, there was no room for doubt. It was up to Sister Helena to proceed with the foundation of the convent. Providence would overcome the obstacles.
To this end, Sister Helena, whose wisdom was “more divine than human” (ibid., p. 54), enlisted the help of three distinguished men of São Paulo at the time. One was her confessor, the Franciscan Friar Antônio de Sant’ana Galvão, already widely regarded as a saint in the city.[1] The other was Canon Antônio de Toledo Lara, Governor of the “vacant see” Bishopric, and the third was Dom Luís Antônio de Sousa Botelho e Mourão, the Governor of the Captaincy of São Paulo, a nobleman.
The king’s express permission was required to found a convent contrary to the law in force. Seeking it risked a refusal. Sister Helena and the three distinguished figures then decided that, in his correspondence with the Government, Dom Luís Antônio should simply announce his intention to found the convent. If no express prohibition ensued, he would understand—with holy cunning and courage—that tacit permission had been granted. With that, he would fulfill the divine will by launching the foundation.
Indeed, the Government did not react. So, at the break of dawn on February 2, 1774, a retinue of local dignitaries gathered in utmost secrecy at the gates of the Recollection of Santa Teresa. It was composed of the Captaincy governor, the Bishop, Friar Galvão, and other personalities. The Recollection Regent handed over Sisters Helena and Ana da Conceição to the illustrious entourage. The nuns entered in two small chairs, and the procession rode on horseback to the Chapel of Light, where they began their contemplative life, professing in the Order of Franciscan Conceptionists in blue and white habits in praise of the Immaculate Conception.
In the same chapel of Luz, the nobleman Dom Luís Antônio founded the benevolent Nobility Brotherhood, an association of great social importance that brought together members of the São Paulo aristocracy under the Virgin’s mantle and that ceased to exist only at the end of the 19th century.
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The seed had been sown and had to be watered. In terms of Faith, this can be done only through the generous acceptance of pain.
Poverty soon made itself felt: “Often there was not even drinking water; we would chew on something sour to alleviate our thirst.” There were days when there was nothing to eat, and we would thank God when we could make tapioca porridge for dinner (ibid., p. 74). The nun who recounts this adds: “and we were very happy and satisfied with Divine Providence, which was our only consolation and joy” (ibid., p. 74). As for the cells, they were “very small, without floors or ceilings, and few in number. Some sisters lived in cells made of bamboo or mats.” Their shoes were made of old cloth. And so on.
Mary Most Holy, patroness of the new convent, gave it a solidity that would defy the ages. Therefore, in addition to poverty, she gave it two more incomparable gifts for truly lasting Catholic things: a catastrophe and a typhoon. The catastrophe was Mother Helena’s death in the odor of sanctity on February 23, 1775. The typhoon was the nuns’ sublimely strong and humble opposition to an unjust order from both the Crown and the Bishop to close the convent. But this is no longer the story of Mother Helena, so I end this series here. I will speak of the holy nuns’ catacomb-like resistance on another occasion.
[1] Saint Antônio de Sant’Ana Galvão (Frei Galvão) was canonized on May 11, 2007, by Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to Brazil.