13 OCTOBER – BLESSED ALEXANDRINA MARIA DA COSTA

Blessed Alexandrina Maria was born in Balasar, in the province of Oporto and the archdiocese of Braga (Portugal), on 30th March 1904 and was baptised on the following 2nd April, Holy Saturday. She was brought up in a Christian manner by her mother, together with her sister Deolinda. Alexandrina stayed with the family until she was seven years old, then she was sent to Póvoa do Varzim to stay with the family of a carpenter, to attend primary school, which was not possible in Balasar. Here, she received her First Holy Communion in 1911 and received the sacrament of Confirmation from the Bishop of Oporto in the following year.

After eighteen months, she returned to Balasar and went to live with her mother and sister in the locality ‘Calvario’, where she remained until her death. She began to work in the fields, having a robust constitution: she kept up with the men and earned as much as they did. Hers was a very lively childhood: endowed with a happy and communicative temperament, she was much loved by her companions. At the age of twelve, however, she fell ill: a serious infection, possibly typhoid intestinal fever, brought her close to death. She overcame the danger, but her body was forever scarred by this illness.

It was at the age of fourteen that a decisive event in her life occurred. It was Holy Saturday in 1918. On that day, she, her sister Deolinda and an apprentice girl were intent on their sewing work, when they realised that three men were trying to enter their room, which they managed to break into, despite the doors being locked. Alexandrina, to save her threatened purity, did not hesitate to throw herself out of the window, from a height of four metres. The consequences were terrible, though not immediate. In fact, the various medical examinations she underwent afterwards diagnosed with increasing clarity an irreversible fact. Until the age of nineteen, she could still drag herself to church where, all shrunken up, she happily stood, to the amazement of people. Then the paralysis progressed more and more, until the pains became terrible, the joints lost their mobility and she was completely paralysed. It was 14th April 1925 when Alexandrina took to her bed, never to rise again, for the remaining thirty years of her life.

Until 1928, she did not stop asking the Lord, through Our Lady's intercession, for the grace of healing, promising that if she was cured, she would go as a missionary. However, as soon as she realised that suffering was her vocation, she readily embraced it. She said: ‘Our Lady gave me an even greater grace. First resignation, then complete conformity to God's will, and finally the desire to suffer’. The first mystical phenomena date back to this period, when Alexandrina began a life of great union with Jesus in the Tabernacles, through Mary Most Holy. One day, when she was alone, this thought suddenly came to her: ‘Jesus, you are a prisoner in the Tabernacle and I am in my bed by your will. We will keep each other company’. She spent her nights as a pilgrim from Tabernacle to Tabernacle. At every Mass, she offered herself to the Eternal Father as a victim for sinners, together with Jesus and according to his intentions.

From 1934, at the invitation of Jesuit Father Mariano Pinho, who directed her spiritually until 1941, Alexandrina wrote down what Jesus said to her from time to time.

In 1936, at Jesus' command, she asked the Holy Father, through father Pinho, for the consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This supplication was renewed several times until 1941, when the Holy See questioned the Archbishop of Braga about Alexandrina three times.

Her love for suffering grew in her more and more, as her vocation as a victim became clearer. She made a vow to always do what was most perfect. From Friday, the 3rd October 1938 to 24th March 1942, i.e. 182 times, she lived the sufferings of the Passion every Friday. Alexandrina, overcoming her habitual state of paralysis, got out of bed and with movements and gestures accompanied by anguished pain reproduced the different moments of the Way of the Cross, for three and a half hours. ‘Love, suffer, repent’ was the programme the Lord showed her.

On 31st October 1942, Pope Pius XII consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary with a message transmitted to Fatima in Portuguese. He renewed this act in Rome in St. Peter's Basilica on 8th December of the same year. From 27th March 1942 onwards Alexandrina stopped eating, living only on the Eucharist. In 1943 for forty days and forty nights her absolute fasting and anuria were strictly controlled by skilled doctors in the hospital at the Douro estuary near Oporto.

In 1944, the new spiritual director, the Salesian Fr. Umberto Maria Pasquale, encouraged Alexandrina to continue dictating her diary, having ascertained the spiritual heights to which she had reached; she did so in a spirit of obedience until her death. In the same year, 1944, Alexandrina enrolled herself in the Union of Salesian Cooperators. She wanted to place her Cooperator's diploma ‘in a place where she could always have it in front of her eyes’, in order to offer her pain and prayers for the salvation of souls, especially the young. She prayed and suffered for the sanctification of Cooperators throughout the world.

In spite of her sufferings, she also continued to take an interest in and work on behalf of the poor, the spiritual good of her parishioners and many other people who resorted to her. She promoted Triduums, Forty Hours and Lenten Days in her parish. Especially in the last years of her life, many people flocked to her even from afar, attracted by her reputation for holiness; and several attributed their conversion to her advice.

In 1950, Alexandrina celebrated the 25th anniversary of her stillbirth. On 7th January 1955, Jesus announced to her that this would be the year of her death. On 12th October, she wished to receive the Anointing of the Sick. On 13th October, the anniversary of Our Lady's last apparition in Fatima, she was heard to exclaim: “I am happy, because I am going to heaven”. At 7.30 pm, she passed away. In Oporto, on the afternoon of 15th October, the florists ran out of white roses: all sold out. A floral tribute to Alexandrina, who had been the white rose of Jesus.

In 1978, her remains were moved from the Balasar cemetery to the parish church, where her body rests today in a side chapel. On her tomb can be read these words that she wanted: “Sinners, if the ashes of my body can be useful to save you, come closer, step on them until they disappear. But sin no more; offend our Jesus no more!.” This is the summary of her life spent exclusively to save souls.

Proclaimed Venerable on 21st December 1995; beatified on 25th April 2004 by St. John Paul II.

PRAYER

Merciful God who made shine in the Church the example of Blessed Alexandrina Maria, intimately united to the Passion of your Son, so that the Eucharistic worship and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary might be kindled in every part of the world, grant to us, through her intercession, to become dwelling places of the Holy Spirit and authentic witnesses of your love.

We beseech you to glorify this your humble servant, and to grant us, through her intercession, the grace we ask of Thee...

Through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Pierluigi Cameroni, SDB

(Source: Pierluigi Cameroni - Like stars in the sky)