Rome (Italy). In line with the Synod on: Young People, Faith, and Vocational Discernment (Cf. Working Document nos. 213-214), in the month of December, we share the third study on the journey of accompaniment in the youth of Saints, Blesseds, Venerables, and Servants of God.
Sister Maria Romero Meneses, Friend of the poor, is the first woman of Central America to attain the honors of the altar.
Accompanied on the road of holiness
“The family is the mirror through which God looks at us and sees the two most beautiful miracles He has done: to give life and to give love!” Maria had the blessing of a family rich in faith, where life is a gift, the fruit of love, and where one learns to trust God and the Virgin Mary.
The baby girl is a gift for everyone from the new year. In fact, she is born on January 13, 1902 at Granada, Nicaragua. Her parents, Félix Romero and Ana Meneses were both originally from Spain. They have her baptized in the same year and two years later, in 1904, she received her Confirmation as was the practice at that time.
Born in the home of the rich house of her maternal grandmother, Maria remains with her for the first years of her life. In that environment she enjoys the affection of her mother, the stories of her grandmother, and the instruction received from her seven maternal aunts who had remained unmarried and managed a private school for girls of the upper social class. It is they who prepare her for her life with the most important of riches, a good Christian formation based not on threats but on reason; not on fear but on love, and where God is the Master of the home.
This family experience will be fundamental for Maria’s personality and also for her apostolate. In fact, she will always seek to offer the poorest the joy of knowing they are loved by a God who is above all, a merciful Father, and this creates a family through acceptance, goodness, listening, gift. All of this plants solid roots in her heart from when she was very young. She is aware that she has been blessed by God and wants others to enjoy this joy and blessing.
