Esperanza Ayerbe (+1967) left the peace of the Madrid monastery of La Encarnación to go on a mission, along with two other Augustinian Recollect nuns, to the mission of Kweitehfu, Henan, China. Her life of prayer and her apostolic zeal have led her own sisters in religion to promote the process of her canonization. In 1915 Pope Francis declared her venerable.
Missionary in Kweitehfu (=Shangqiu)
On February 3, 1931, Sister Esperanza left the cloister to join her two new companions, Sister María Ángeles García and Sister Carmela Ruiz, contemplative Augustinian Recollects like her.
Sister Esperanza writes to the mother prioress of the monastery of Granada: “I feel so much strength and immense joy that surpasses all the sorrow that this heart so fleshy naturally has… my missionary enthusiasm reach the limit. I trust that this work will reach the end. “Pray a lot so that Jesus may always be our strength and our comfort.”
She arrived at the Mission on May 19 of the same year, 1931. She was named superior of the community. She wants to do the will of the Lord, so she accepts this service in the new project.
After having worked for nearly nine years in the mission of Kweitehfu (=Shangqiu), caring for the orphaned girls of the Holy Childhood, educating and forming the indigenous nuns in the religious spirit, healing the sick, catechizing and baptizing in article mortis As many as we found and were able to instruct in the truths of the faith, (…) lives and works with great missionary zeal.
Missionary training house
On January 3, 1940, Mother Esperanza Ayerbe and Sister Carmela Ruiz left the Mission for Manila, and Monsignor Ochoa to accompany them and help them on the trip to Spain.
Her project was to launch the long-cherished dream of opening a novitiate in Spain in order to train missionaries so that they would later go to work at the Kweitehfu mission, Henan, China.
Lacking all kinds of resources, they finally manage to rent a small house in the town of Monteagudo (Navarra), under the protection of the Lady of the Way and the community of the Augustinian Recollects, who have a convent in this town.
On October 2, 1941, the novitiate house in Monteagudo was opened with the first aspirants: Irene Fabrizzi, Italian, and Marichu Belza, Navarrese.
Due to the difficulties of communication with the Augustinian Recollects of the Philippines, a Congregation that the Spanish missionaries had joined while they were in China, the Holy See grants Mother Esperanza Ayerbe de la Cruz the prerogatives of superior general.
Foundation of a new Congregation
When the Congregation separated, the erection of a new Congregation was requested, with the name of Augustinian Recollect Missionaries of Mary. Request that is granted on January 18, 1947. The Holy See appoints Mother Esperanza, superior general, a position she held until 1962, when she resigned due to illness. In this same year, Mother Esperanza saw the Congregation spread to six countries: Spain, Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina and Ecuador. As was typical of her position, she crossed the seas several times to visit the communities of different countries, leaving a deep mark on all the sisters for her delicate maternal treatment and her profound spirituality.
Her unconditional dedication to Jesus, whom she called “my only love,” was always missionary and always contemplative in the midst of her tasks and responsibility. Mood that she transmitted to her daughters:
“If we truly belong to Jesus, we must follow his divine example in everything, seeking by all means within our reach the greatest glory of the Father and the greatest good for our brothers.”
Her life is wasting away day after day. She was very sick and suffering a lot in her last days, she said: “I do not ask the Lord for death or life, but I would be lying if I said that I was indifferent. I want to go with Him, and better today than tomorrow… Yes, see and love God without danger of losing Him… God! Everything is in God, whatever He wants I want.”
Death of Esperanza Ayerbe de la Cruz
She went to enjoy the Father’s house on May 23, 1967, to enjoy her encounter with her only love. She died in Monteagudo, her hometown, in the mother house of the Augustinian Recollect Missionaries. Her mortal remains have rested, since December 5, 2009, in the chapel of the church that the MAR have in this same town.
The dedicated life of Mother Esperanza Ayerbe de la Cruz remained in the memory of all who knew her and because of her testimony the process of canonization began in 1991.
On April 4, 1997, she was recognized as a servant of God by the Congregation for the Cause of Saints. She follows the process and she was declared venerable on December 14, 2015 in the Year of Consecrated Life.
Wisdom, the spiritual inheritance of Esperanza Ayerbe
Venerable Mother Esperanza Ayerbe de la Cruz in her missionary life, without a doubt, practiced works of mercy, as the more than 600 pages of the “Positio” of her beatification cause attest to this. However, here we want to mention one of the most outstanding gifts with which God endowed her: that of wisdom, thanks to which some advice of high spiritual content flowed from her lips. Here are some examples:
“Tell everyone to take advantage of now that they are good to do something for God. Let them reject everything that leads to a broad life on the path of holiness as a betrayal made to Him who told us: “Be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect.”
“Daughter, there is no need to run so much; “Things have to be done well because they are done for God.”
“We do not serve just any lord, but the Lord of lords, we are wives of the King.”
“You have already told me, I forgive you, now ask the Lord.”
“God is merciful, He always forgives us.”
“If we are not filled with God, how are we going to give it to others?”
“Do not look for strength in anything else, but only in prayer, in liturgical and sacramental life, in the worship of the Eucharist.”
“Victory does not consist in always winning, but in never becoming discouraged.”
“God has chosen us without any merit on our part.”
“I can still suffer more for Him.”
“How rich poverty is.”
“God wants believers to help each other, teach each other, indoctrinate each other. And one of the duties of priests is precisely this: to serve as guidance in the search for Christ.”
“The delicacy of love is not manifested in great deeds but in small details.”
