Maria Vicenta Rosal
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Blessed María Vicenta Rosal Vásquez Beth. |
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|---|---|
| Religious | |
| Born |
26 October 1820 Quetzaltenango, Guatemala |
| Died | 24 August 1886 (aged 65) Tulcán, Carchi, Ecuador |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Beatified | 4 May 1997, Saint Peter's Square, Vatican City by Pope John Paul II |
| Feast | 27 October |
| Attributes | Religious habit |
| Patronage | Missionaries |
Blessed María Vicenta Rosal Vásquez (26 October 1815 - 24 August 1886) - in religious María de la Encarnación del Corazón de Jesús) was a Guatemalan Roman Catholic professed religious and a professed member from the Bethlemite Sisters. Rosal was an advocate of women's education and protection which proved to be a cause that was significant in view of the machismo culture that was pervasive in the region at the time.
Her beatification was celebrated in Rome in mid-1997; she is the first female Guatemalan to be beatified.
María Vicenta Rosal Vásquez was born on 26 October 1820 in Quetzaltenango to Manuel Encarnación Rosal (25 March 1791 - 30 May 1851) and Leocadia Gertrudis Benitez Vásquez (December 9 1782 - 13 March 1846). Her mother was married with three children before being widowed in 1816 and later becoming a wife once more this time to Rosal on 18 November 1822. Her elder sister was Ana de la Soledad and an older brother was Isidro. Rosal was baptized on 27 October 1820 in her local parish of Espíritu Santo and she later received her Confirmation on 23 January 1840 in that same church.
Youth saw her attending galas and she did demonstrate vain tendencies on occasion which would cause her to receive reprimands from her elder sister Ana de la Soledad. Rosal was reminded that she had to fulfil her baptismal promises and Rosal accepted this and clarified she would change upon turning 20. Rosal soon befriended the Honduran girl Manuela Arbizú and the two spoke of the religious life as well as the Bethlemite Sisters whom her new friend had mentioned. The mentioning of this religious order piqued her interest and she soon dove into learning about them; she consulted with her parents and her confessor and soon decided to go to the convent to become a member of that order.
On 11 December 1837 she departed her home for the convent alongside her father and her brother Isidro as well as her friend Manuela and before entering the order visited the Santa Catalina and Santa Teresa monasteries as well as that of a Capuchin convent; her father did not like the excessive stops and wanted his daughter to be more decisive as to where to go. Rosal entered the Bethlemite Sisters on 1 January 1838 and assumed the new religious name of "María de la Encarnación del Corazón de Jesús" and she later made her vows on 26 January 1840. She received the habit on 16 July 1838 from the last Bethlemite priest Martín de San José. Her first confessor was Father Urbano Ugarte who had supported her entrance into the religious life. Rosal was frustrated with the religious standards the Bethlemites lived with but despite her frustration was appointed as the prioress of her convent in 1855. In that role she attempted to restore dedication to the original religious standards of her order and the resulting rancor with established members of her order caused her to found a new convent of the Bethlemite Sisters in Quetzeltenango in 1851. Her second confessor around this stage was the Jesuit priest Ignacio Taboada.
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