Estoril (Portugal). On 11 January 2025, the Province of Our Lady of Fatima (POR) celebrated with gratitude the 85th anniversary of the presence of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in Portugal.
On 11 January 1940, by the will of Archbishop Manuel Mendes da Conceição Santos, now Servant of God, a group of five Daughters of Mary Help of Christians arrived at the port of Lisbon, accompanied by Sister Francisca Lang, Provincial of Barcelona. They were received by the Director of the Salesians of Don Bosco in Évora, Fr. Francisco José Leite Pereira, who had organized the reception of the FMA from 11 to 14 January at the house of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary in Lisbon.
On 15 January, Sister Caterina Fasola, Animator, Sister Guglielmina Polo, Sister Adele Rabolini, Sister Giuseppina Cerutti, and Sister Natalina Corno founded the first FMA Community in Portugal, in the city of Évora, taking charge of the education of poor girls, orphans, and abandoned living in the New Convent.
That day they were welcomed at 4:00 pm in the atrium of the New Convent by the local civil and religious authorities. The girls dressed in festive uniforms, waited for the arrival of the Sisters in Church.
The little seed was thrown into the holy land of Mary, where the Virgin of Fatima had already communicated her message of Peace to three children. In times as difficult as those, with Europe plunged into the horrors of World War II, nothing prevented this group of five courageous women from starting this great adventure of the salvation of youth.
Anchored to the protection of Mary Help of Christians, with a faith and hope capable of overcoming mountains, they gave life and built the work that is still alive in Portugal today through the realities carried out by the FMA with the same confidence in Mary and the sole desire to work for the salvation of souls by doing good to young people and the poorest and neediest.
