Laura Montoya

thumb|Laura of Saint Catherine of Siena Laura Montoya, in full María Laura de Jesús Montoya Upegui (26 May 1874 – 21 October 1949), religious name Laura of Saint Catherine of Siena, was a Colombian Roman Catholic religious sister and the founder of the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Virgin Mary and Saint Catherine of Siena (1914). Quotes I needed intrepid, valiant women, inflamed in the love of God, who could assimilate their lives to those of the poor inhabitants of the forest, to lead them towards God. Quoted in Laura Montoya Upegui (1874-1949), vatican.va, February 2004. I saw myself in God and as if he were enveloping me in his fatherhood, making me the mother, in the most intense way, of the infidels. They hurt me like real children. Quoted in Laura Montoya Upegui (1874-1949), vatican.va, February 2004. I felt a great desire to have three long lives: one to devote to worship, the other to spend in humiliation, and the third for missions; but, in offering these impossible desires to the Lord, it seemed too little to lead a life for missions, and I offered him the desire to have a million lives to sacrifice in missions among the infidels! However, he was very sad! And I have told the Lord much from my soul this lightning bolt: Let me die to see that I am nothing and that I want you! Quoted in Laura Montoya Upegui (1874-1949), vatican.va, February 2004. Quotes about This Blessed Colombian felt herself the spiritual mother of the natives, to whom she wanted to show the love of God. His times were not easy, as social tensions bloodied his noble homeland even then. Inspired by her peacemaking message, we ask her today that her beloved Colombia may soon enjoy peace, justice and integral progress. Pope John Paul II, Cappella papale per la beatificazione di sei servi di Dio, 25 April 2004, Rome. This first saint born in the beautiful Colombian land teaches us to be generous with God, not to live the faith alone –as if it were possible to live the faith in isolation–, but to communicate it, to bring the joy of the Gospel with the word and the testimony of life to every environment in which we find ourselves. Wherever we live, radiate this gospel life! It teaches us to see the face of Jesus reflected in the other, to overcome indifference and individualism, which corrode Christian communities and corrode our hearts, and it teaches us to welcome everyone without prejudice, without discrimination, without reticence, with sincere love, giving them the best of ourselves and above all sharing with them what we have most precious, which are not our works or our organizations, no! What we have most precious is Christ and his Gospel. Pope Francis, Santa messa e canonizzazioni, 12 May 2013, Rome. Saint Laura Montoya was an instrument of evangelization first as a teacher and then as the spiritual mother of the indigenous people, to whom she instilled hope, welcoming them with the love learned from God and bringing them to Him with a pedagogical effectiveness that respected their culture and was not opposed to it. In her work of evangelization Mother Laura truly gave herself to all, according to the expression of St. Paul (cf. 1 Cor 9:22). Pope Francis, Santa messa e canonizzazioni, 12 May 2013, Rome. External links Montoya, Laura Category:1874 births Category:1949 deaths Category:Nuns Category:Missionaries Category:Catholics from Colombia Category:Catholic saints