Marija Petkovic

The Blessed Mary of Jesus Crucified Petković (10 December 1892 - 9 July 1966), known as Marija od Propetoga Isusa Petković in her native Croatian language and Maria Di Geso Crocifisso in the Holy See's Italian language, was the founder of the Catholic Congregation of the Daughters of Mercy. She was recognized by the Catholic Church as a Venerable Servant of God on 8 May 1998, and was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 6 June 2003.

Marija was born in the village of Blato on the Croatian island of Korčula on 10 December 1892, the sixth of thirteen children born to Marija Marinović and Antun Petković-Kovač.

After elementary school, Marija enrolled in 1904 in Blato's municipal school, which had been recently founded by the Servants of Charity, a Catholic order newly-arrived from Italy. After successfully completing the three-year program, she continued her studies at the School of Domestic Science, also directed by the Servants of Charity. In 1906 she became involved with the Daughters of Mary Association. About this time she revealed to Bishop Josip Marcelic of Dubrovnik that she wanted to enter the convent, which marked the beginning of Marija's spiritual direction under the Bishop's care. On 21 November 1906, she made a private vow of chastity to the Lord.

From 1909 to 1919 Marija was president of the Daughters of Mary. Although frail and frequently ill, in addition to her obligations in her parents' home, Marija provided catechesis and instruction in general subjects to the children of the families whose parents worked on her father's estate. In 1911 Marija's father died, leaving her to help her mother care for the family and provide for the education of the other children. That labor, amid the destruction wreaked in Croatia by World War I, was very influential in Marija's vocational discernment. Marija became involved in a number of existing Catholic organizations, and, in 1915, under the guidance of Bishop Josip, began her first new association, the Society of Catholic Mothers. In 1917 she assumed the responsibility of guiding the Third Order Franciscans. That same year, she began helping the Servants of Charity in the "soup kitchen" that they directed. In 1918, in front of the citizens of Blato, Marija made a formal promise to the Bishop to remain in Blato to help and live with the poor.

On 25 March 1919, Marija and her friend, Marija Telenta, entered the convent of the Servants of Charity. Two months later, however, the Mother Superior died and the other sisters, for political reasons, returned to Italy. Marija, her companion, and two other nuns were all that remained of the convent. Bishop Josip watched over and advised the four Sisters, especially Marija, whom he counseled in humility and service. Marija requested from him the Rule of the Third Order Franciscans, and, in the winter of 1919, opened three institutions in Blato: a day-recovery centre, a child-care facility, and an orphanage.

On 25 August 1920, in Prižba (on the island of Korcula), Marija wrote the first Constitutions of the Order of Daughters of Mercy, the Third Independent Order of St. Francis, setting forth their mission of spreading knowledge of divine love and mercy through charitable acts. Bishop Josip inaugurated the Order on 4 October, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi. On that day, Marija received the name of Marija od Propetoga Isusa (Mary of Jesus Crucified) and was chosen as the Mother Superior of the Order. When the nuns in Blato had exhausted their own funds, Marija went to Slavonia and Vojvodina to solicit help for the orphans and widows, receiving, among other contributions, a donation from Pope Pius XI. In 1923, Marija took charge of the Kolevka Children’s Home in Subotica, after which she opened numerous centers for children in Slavonia, Serbia, and the Republic of Macedonia.

From 1920 to 1952, Mother Marija was elected five times as the Superior General of the Daughters of Mercy. She traveled throughout Croatia, Latin America, and Italy, opening 46 communities while she was alive. The growing number of Sisters served in various social ministries, such as in nursing homes, hospitals, nursery schools, parish work, and work in the seminaries. Beginning in 1936, the Order was prominent in Latin America and South America. Marija lived in Argentina from 1940 to 1952, promoting charity work in many countries in Latin America. In addition to catechesis, she organized instruction in hygiene, economics, homemaking, sewing and tailoring, knitting, nursing, and typing.

In 1952, Marija went to Rome to purchase and set up the Congregation's headquarters. While there in 1954 she suffered a stroke which left her permanently paralyzed. In 1961, she concluded that her duty to the Congregation was no longer one of leadership but of sacrifice and suffering, prayer and offering herself to the Lord, and relinquished the office of Mother Superior that she had held for 40 years. She continued to follow the events in the Catholic Church and her Congregation, especially those changes brought about by the Second Vatican Council, until age 74, when, exhausted from a life of service, Marija died. She was buried in the Roman cemetery of Campo Verano.

Three years later, her earthly remains were translated to the house chapel of the Congregation headquarters, where they remained until 1998 when they were translated to her native Blato and buried in the crypt of the monastery chapel of Christ the King.

Beatification

On 26 August 1988, the Peruvian submarine BAP Pacocha was rammed and sunk by a Japanese fishing trawler. Teniente Roger Cotrina Alvarado distinguished himself during the disaster -- praying for Marija's aid, Cotrina displayed superhuman strength in opening a hatch against several thousands of pounds of water. That action prevented the immediate deaths of 22 crewmen, and Cotrina's subsequent heroic but merely temporal actions brought about their rescue.

On 28 February 1989, the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints began an investigation into the reports of that miracle. On 8 May 1998, Pope John Paul II confirmed the Congregation's initial report and decreed that Marija's heroic virtues be publicly declared, formally recognizing Marija as a "Servant of God," to be entitled "Venerable."

The Congregation issued their ruling on Marija's heroic virtues on 5 July 2002, and on the following 20 December issued a ruling recognizing the miraculous nature of the submarine rescue. On 6 June 2003, Pope John Paul II celebrated Marija's beatification Mass in Dubrovnik, formally recognizing Marija as "Blessed."