The celebrations for the 75th anniversary of the official recognition of this female missionary Congregation members of the Augustinian Recollect Family have succeeded each other throughout the geography where they are present. In the case of Lábrea, it has been a moment to remember the long, rich and testimonial history of the MAR in the Amazon.
The Augustinian Recollect Missionaries have just closed a jubilee year for the 75th anniversary of their official recognition as a Congregation by the Church. Born in the heat of deeds missionaries of the Augustinian Recollect Family in China and Brazil for their generosity and dedication total number of cloistered nuns, in 1947 the Universal Church gave them the official letter of existence as an independent and autonomous congregation.
For the first time in the Brazilian Amazon
The mission of Lábrea, in Amazonas, Brazil, was one of the places where the birth took place of this Congregation. In 1937, three cloistered nuns arrived from Spain encouraged and welcomed by the prelate, Ignacio Martínez, today on his way to the altars. They were called Adelaida Miguel de la Transfiguración, María Díez de Ulzurrun del Sagrario and Vicenta del Buen Consejo.
They left the cloistered life in Spain and wanted to acclimatize to the Amazon jungle to dedicate themselves mainly to the education of the youngest, completely abandoned to their luck in that very remote place and not prepared to give hope and an education of quality and a more dignified life for its most vulnerable inhabitants.
That is why one of the most moving celebrations of the Jubilee Year took place in Lábrea. Last January 18, in one of the base communities of what is now the city of Lábrea, with participation of the two religious communities of the place, that of the MAR missionaries and that of the Augustinian Recollects. The Augustinian Recollect Bishop of the Prelature presided over the celebration, Santiago Sanchez.
Uninterruptedly for the last 69 years
There are many Augustinian Recollect missionaries who have passed through the banks of the Purús River, the backbone of the Mission of Labrea, to this day. They have left testimony of their good work and its dedication to the people of God.
That first experience did not last long, until May 1940, due to the tropical diseases suffered by the three nuns and the lack of resources to continue teaching. They moved to Rio de Janeiro, establishing the presence of the MAR in Brazil, one of the countries that have given the most vocations to the Congregation.
Eleven years later, in 1951, the mother general of the Augustinian Recollect Missionaries and co-founder of the Congregation, Esperanza Ayerbe, also today on her way to the altars, spoke for the first time on the return of the MAR to the Prelature of Labrea with the then bishop Augustinian Recollect José Álvarez Macua.
In November 1953, the MAR General Council, at the proposal of Mother Esperanza, approved the foundation. In turn, the bishop began to build the Colegio Santa Rita, which was to be the first place of residence and work of the sisters.
Finally, on March 17, 1954, the first four nuns of this second group arrived which has already been, uninterrupted: sister Nieves Ulayar, sister María Paz Gallego, sister María José Borges and Sister Cleusa Coelho, who were accompanied from Rio de Janeiro by the Augustinian recollect Jesus Pardo.
Three days after arriving they already opened enrollment at the Santa Rita School. there were so many petitions for admission that the carpenters had to hastily build more tables, there were have to bring benches from the temple and even use empty boxes for desks during the first days of class.
The four nuns were appointed state teachers and such was the success of the College and of the presence and work of the nuns in Labrea that began to arouse envy and suspicion in important people of the city: the education of the poorest has never been a preference of the richest, who at that time were owners of rubber factories and, almost also, of the rubber tappers.
In addition to the educational ministry, adult literacy and sewing courses and clothing or cooking, the nuns were in charge of catechism and other sectors pastoral as the problems and struggles of the poorest people.
Their encouraging and consoling presence has been felt ever since by the sick, the hansenians, the Indians, the prisoners, the children, the Christian communities, the washerwomen, the youth. They never had a problem going up and down the muddy ravines of the Purús river, nor in leading protests, organizing associations or supporting so many demands for social justice.
At the request of the Augustinian Recollect Bishop Florentino Zabalza, in 1978 they opened another house in Canutama to dedicate himself to teaching and attend to the hospital and other pastoral activities. They did a magnificent job, but, for different reasons, four years later they closed this ministry.
One of the most tragic moments and, at the same time, testimonials of the presence of the Augustinian Recollect Missionaries in Lábrea was the martyrdom of one of them, Cleusa Carolina Rhody Coelho, while she defended the rights of indigenous peoples.
It was April 28, 1985 and since then, every year, this date is marked on the
annual calendar of the Church in Labrea, with a great procession celebrating the testimony of this missionary MAR, which the locals already consider holy.
The Augustinian Recollect Missionaries continue in Lábrea, in that Church with an Amazonian face, supporting the evangelizing and social tasks of the Prelature. Their presence is felt and they are already an indisputable part of the Labrense people.
