Sister Maria Glória da Igreja — January 8, 1992 - † January 27, 2021
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.
On January 27th, 2021, Sister Maria Glória da Igreja (Mary Glory of the Church in Portuguese) finished her earthly pilgrimage and went to meet her Divine Spouse. Sister Glória had suffered much of her religious life from various physical ailments. In December of 2020 she was diagnosed with cancer that had already metastasized, and a little over a month later she passed away in Rome in the presence of her parents and surrounded by her religious family.
Sister Glória was born into a Baptist family in Bahía, Brazil in 1992, but was baptized Catholic at the age of 14. She entered religious life in São Paolo, Brazil in 2013 at the age of 21. After completing her initial formation in Brazil, she went to Italy to finish her studies. In 2018 Sister Glória requested to enter contemplative life, and in February of 2019 she entered the contemplative monastery in Tuscania, Italy. Shortly after, she offered herself to join the newly founded monastery in Albania, which prays for the particular intention of “the Church and in reparation for the sins committed by her members”.
Sister Glória professed her perpetual vows to her Divine Bridegroom on January 1, 2021, and a few days later she was transferred to Rome for medical treatment. It was there that her parents were able to come from Brazil to be with her during her last days. In those last few weeks before her death, she was constantly surrounded by the members of our religious family and had the grace of the Holy Mass being offered in her room every day by one of the priests of the Incarnate Word. On January 27, 2021, after having participated in the second Mass celebrated that day in her room, she was called to the Eternal Wedding Feast of the Lamb.
Sister Glória was known for her smile and her joyful spirit even in the midst of great suffering. She effectively practiced in her life what one of her favorite saints (St. Maravillas de Jesús) often said: “What God wants, when God wants and how God wants it.“
She always demonstrated a deep and fervent love of Our Lady, attributing her conversion and the discovery of the Catholic Church and of her vocation to Mary. We share with you an account in her own words of how she discovered Our Blessed Mother when she was 13:
As the years passed, my desire to be baptized grew, but according to Baptist custom, I could only do it once I was 14 years old. Meanwhile, I grew up listening to bad things about the Catholic Church (…) But above all, what I questioned the most was the way in which the Virgin Mary was talked about; she was treated in a very contemptuous way. She was that Lady who could not be loved. And although I did not understand much, I did not like their treating her in such a way because at least I knew that she was the Mother of Jesus and that surely He would not like them to speak ill of His Mother, as I would not like them to speak ill of mine.
At the age of 12, I became friends with several young Catholics from my school. Contrary to what I heard, they did not do bad things; they were good and always wore some symbol of their devotion to Mary: scapulars, T-shirts with the image of the Virgin, etc. In short, they publicly manifested the love they had for Mary. These attitudes challenged me internally and I decided to investigate who was this woman who was so despised by some and so loved by others.
I knew that I would find an answer in the Holy Scriptures since, given my evangelical formation, only there could I find the exact answer to my questions. So it was that searching in the Gospels I came to the passage of the Magnificat: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my savior, because he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed ”. This woman could not be just any woman, since she was to be forever proclaimed blessed! By a grace of the Holy Spirit, at the age of 13 I decided to love her as mother and to seek to know the Church that proclaimed her ‘blessed’.”
We give thanks to God for the life and vocation of Sister Glória and we ask in a special way for the grace of final perseverance for all the members of our religious family.
Our Lady of Lujan, Mother of our vocations, pray for us!
