Úrsula Micaela Morata
Ursula Micaela Morata | |
---|---|
Sister Ursula Micaela Morata | |
Venerable | |
Born | 21 October 1628 Cartagena, Spain |
Died | 9 January 1703 Alicante, Spain |
Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
Feast | – |
Ursula Micaela Morata (Cartagena, Spain, 21 October 1628 – Alicante, Spain, 9 January 1703[1]) was a nun, mystic, and founder of the convent of the Capuchin Poor Clares in Alicante, Spain.[2][3]
Childhood
Born into a well-to-do family, Morata was the youngest of thirteen brothers and sisters. Her father, Marco Aurelio Morata e Iscaya, was an Italian knight from Savoy. Her mother, Juana Garibaldo, from Madrid, was also of Italian ancestry. They died within three days of each other in 1632, when Morata was three years old. She was left in the care of her elder sister, Sebastiana. When she was four years old, she had her first mystical experience during an attack of smallpox that brought her to the brink of death. In her own words,
I was seized by a paroxysm in which I remained unconscious for more or less twenty-four hours. What joy my soul experienced during that time is impossible to describe. I found myself in an immense clarity and divine light that, while it offered no object or image to my sight, my faculties and senses so enjoyed that I thought I was already rapt up in glory. (Autobiografía, Chapter I)
Thus began her spiritual apprenticeship, in which she acquired the dominant ideas of the time as regards prayer, fasting and mortification, receiving through these practices other mystical experiences.
Thanks to her sister, she learned to read and to write, an uncommon practice at the time, especially for women.
Early years as a nun
In 1647, she took her religious vows in the convent of the Capuchin Poor Clares of Murcia, adopting the name Micaela.
When plague ravaged Murcia in 1648, Sister Ursula Micaela nursed the sick. In 1651 and 1653 the river Segura overflowed, forcing the community of nuns to abandon their convent and take refuge on Monte de los Ermitas. During this period, Sister Ursula Micaela experienced the dark night of the soul, a stage of spiritual crisis described by many mystics. In 1652, she was ordered by her confessor to write her autobiography.
Spiritual progress
In 1653, at the end of her dark night of the soul, she experienced transverberation of the heart in a manner similar to Saint Teresa of Ávila:
I was shown in spirit an angel with a fiery dart, which he thrust into my heart. The pain and fire that I felt was so great that it seemed to penetrate my bones and I fell to the ground in a faint. But the angel prevented me from being hurt. I spent an hour in joy and suffering I cannot express, except to say that I was burned in flames of divine love. (Autobiografía, Chapter VI)
Sister Ursula Micaela had various supernatural experiences also found in other mystics: visions, locutions, miracles, extrasensory perception, etc. She was especially noted for bilocation, which even took her to other nations, and prophecy, which made her an oracle to whom people turned for advice, including Charles II of Spain and John of Austria the Younger, with both of whom she maintained a correspondence. [citation needed]
In 1661, she was elected counselor and secretary of her religious community.
Convent in Alicante
In 1669, the first steps were taken to establish a convent of the Capuchin Poor Clares in the city of Alicante. The difficulties were many, and the foundation did not take place until 1672. The first residence was provisional, in a house not really appropriate for communitarian life. For that reason, work began on the construction of a convent and church, financed by donations from the people of Alicante and John of Austria the Younger, and under the protection of Charles II. The work was not completed until 1682.[citation needed] The convent received the title of Triumphs of the Blessed Sacrament, a name inspired by one of Sister Ursula's visions.
Sister Ursula Micaela held the office of vicaress (vicaria or deputy abbess) of the convent until 1699, when she was elected abbess, an office she held until her death. These later experiences are not recorded in her Autobiography, since she left off writing it in 1684.
Death and cause for beatification
After two years of painful illness, she died on 9 January 1703, at the age of 75. The fame of her sanctity and the social prestige she had acquired resulted in her body lying in state in the church for six days. The body remained incorrupt, warm and supple,[citation needed] for which reason it was not interred. In 1742, Juan Elías Gómez de Terán, Bishop of Orihuela, finding it still intact,[citation needed] ordered that it be placed in a coffer without being buried. Thus the body has been conserved until the present time, still remaining incorrupt and supple.[4]
Sister Ursula Micaela's reputation for sanctity led José de la Torre y Orumbella, Bishop of Orihuela-Alicante, to initiate an examination of her life and virtues in 1703 with a view to beatification. As a result of fires in the archives during the War of the Spanish Succession and the Spanish Civil War, the resulting documents were lost. However, her autobiography, 24 letters, and some other testimonies regarding her life survive. A diocesan inquiry for her beatification was opened by Rafael Palmero Ramos, Bishop of Orihuela-Alicante, on 11 October 2006 and concluded on 11 June 2009.
Bibliography
- Memorias de una monja del Siglo XVII: autobiografía de la Madre Úrsula Micaela Morata, edited by Vicente Benjamin Piquer Garcés. Alicante: Hermanas Clarisas Capuchinas, 1999.
References
- ^ Rodes Lloret, Fernando; Pastor Bravo, María del Mar; Dorado Fernández, Enrique; Coello Carrero, José Antonio; Colom-Valiente, Maria F.; Magaña, Concepción; Arenas Jiménez, Juan; Perea-Pérez, Bernardo; Labajo Rodríguez, Elena; Sáez Vidal, Joaquín (January 2021). "Estudio antropológico forense del cuerpo momificado de Úrsula Micaela Morata (siglo XVII)". ISSN 2603-6797.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - ^ Cortés Sempere, Maria del Carmen (2014). "La fundación de las clarisas capuchinas en Alicante.: La Madre Úrsula Micaela Morata". Las Clarisas, ocho siglos de vida religiosa y cultural: (Priego de Córdoba-Jaén, 27-29 de julio de 2011), 2014, ISBN 978-84-938148-3-0, págs. 153-166. Asociación Hispánica de Estudios Franciscanos: 153–166. ISBN 978-84-938148-3-0.
- ^ Sáez Vidal, Joaquín (2014). "Sor Úrsula Micaela Morata (1628-1703): Un ejemplo de espiritualidad en la España barroca". Sor Úrsula Micaela Morata: vida y muerte (estudio biográfico y antropológico-forense), 2014, ISBN 978-84-9717-292-9, págs. 25-108. Servicio de Publicaciones: 25–108. ISBN 978-84-9717-292-9.
- ^ Alicante Travel guide: Churches and Temples
- v
- t
- e
Stages of canonization: Servant of God → Venerable → Blessed → Saint
- Gabriel
- Michael in the Catholic Church
- Raphael
- Anatolius
- Anthony of Kiev
- Athanasius the Confessor
- Chariton the Confessor
- Dominic
- Edward the Confessor
- Francis of Assisi
- Francis Borgia
- Homobonus
- Lazarus Zographos
- Louis Bertrand
- Maximus the Confessor
- Michael of Synnada
- Paphnutius the Confessor
- Paul I of Constantinople
- Peter Claver
- Salonius
- Sergius of Radonezh
- Theophanes the Confessor
- Pio of Pietrelcina
- Gregory the Great
- Ambrose
- Augustine of Hippo
- Jerome
- John Chrysostom
- Basil of Caesarea
- Gregory of Nazianzus
- Athanasius of Alexandria
- Cyril of Alexandria
- Cyril of Jerusalem
- John of Damascus
- Bede the Venerable
- Ephrem the Syrian
- Thomas Aquinas
- Bonaventure
- Anselm of Canterbury
- Isidore of Seville
- Peter Chrysologus
- Leo the Great
- Peter Damian
- Bernard of Clairvaux
- Hilary of Poitiers
- Alphonsus Liguori
- Francis de Sales
- Peter Canisius
- John of the Cross
- Robert Bellarmine
- Albertus Magnus
- Anthony of Padua
- Lawrence of Brindisi
- Teresa of Ávila
- Catherine of Siena
- Thérèse of Lisieux
- John of Ávila
- Hildegard of Bingen
- Gregory of Narek
- Irenaeus
Fathers
- Alexander of Alexandria
- Alexander of Jerusalem
- Ambrose of Milan
- Anatolius
- Athanasius of Alexandria
- Augustine of Hippo
- Caesarius of Arles
- Caius
- Cappadocian Fathers
- Clement of Alexandria
- Clement of Rome
- Cyprian of Carthage
- Cyril of Alexandria
- Cyril of Jerusalem
- Damasus I
- Desert Fathers
- Desert Mothers
- Dionysius of Alexandria
- Dionysius of Corinth
- Dionysius
- Ephrem the Syrian
- Epiphanius of Salamis
- Fulgentius of Ruspe
- Gregory the Great
- Gregory of Nazianzus
- Gregory of Nyssa
- Hilary of Poitiers
- Hippolytus of Rome
- Ignatius of Antioch
- Irenaeus of Lyons
- Isidore of Seville
- Jerome of Stridonium
- John Chrysostom
- John of Damascus
- Maximus the Confessor
- Melito of Sardis
- Quadratus of Athens
- Papias of Hierapolis
- Peter Chrysologus
- Polycarp of Smyrna
- Theophilus of Antioch
- Victorinus of Pettau
- Vincent of Lérins
- Zephyrinus
- Abda and Abdisho
- Boris and Gleb
- Charles de Foucauld
- Canadian Martyrs
- Carthusian Martyrs
- Child Martyrs of Tlaxcala
- Christina of Persia
- Devasahayam Pillai
- Dismas the Good Thief
- Forty Martyrs of England and Wales
- Four Crowned Martyrs
- Gerard of Csanád
- Great Martyr
- The Holy Innocents
- Irish Martyrs
- John Fisher
- Korean Martyrs
- Lorenzo Ruiz
- Martyrs of Lübeck
- Luigi Versiglia
- Martyrology
- Martyrs of Albania
- Martyrs of Algeria
- Martyrs of Cajonos
- Martyrs of Drina
- Martyrs of China
- Martyrs of Gorkum
- Martyrs of Japan
- 21 Martyrs of Libya
- Martyrs of La Rioja
- Martyrs of Laos
- Martyrs of Natal
- Martyrs of Otranto
- Martyrs of Prague
- Martyrs of Sandomierz
- Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War
- Martyrs of Zenta
- Maximilian Kolbe
- Óscar Romero
- Pedro Calungsod
- Perpetua and Felicity
- Peter Chanel
- Pietro Parenzo
- Philomena
- Saints of the Cristero War
- Stephen
- Teresa Benedicta of the Cross
- Titus Brandsma
- 17 Thomasian Martyrs
- Thomas Becket
- Thomas More
- Three Martyrs of Chimbote
- Ulma Family
- Uganda Martyrs
- Vietnamese Martyrs
- Valentine of Rome
- Victor and Corona
- Zanitas and Lazarus of Persia
- Adeodatus I
- Adeodatus II
- Adrian III
- Agapetus I
- Agatho
- Alexander I
- Anacletus
- Anastasius I
- Anicetus
- Anterus
- Benedict II
- Boniface I
- Boniface IV
- Caius
- Callixtus I
- Celestine I
- Celestine V
- Clement I
- Cornelius
- Damasus I
- Dionysius
- Eleuterus
- Eugene I
- Eusebius
- Eutychian
- Evaristus
- Fabian
- Felix I
- Felix III
- Felix IV
- Gelasius I
- Gregory I
- Gregory II
- Gregory III
- Gregory VII
- Hilarius
- Hormisdas
- Hyginus
- Innocent I
- John I
- John XXIII
- John Paul II
- Julius I
- Leo I
- Leo II
- Leo III
- Leo IV
- Leo IX
- Linus
- Lucius I
- Marcellinus
- Marcellus I
- Mark
- Martin I
- Miltiades
- Nicholas I
- Paschal I
- Paul I
- Paul VI
- Peter
- Pius I
- Pius V
- Pius X
- Pontian
- Sergius I
- Silverius
- Simplicius
- Siricius
- Sixtus I
- Sixtus II
- Sixtus III
- Soter
- Stephen I
- Stephen IV
- Sylvester I
- Symmachus
- Telesphorus
- Urban I
- Victor I
- Vitalian
- Zachary
- Zephyrinus
- Zosimus
- Agabus
- Amos
- Anna
- Baruch ben Neriah
- David
- Elijah
- Ezekiel
- Habakkuk
- Haggai
- Hosea
- Isaiah
- Jeremiah
- Job
- Joel
- John the Baptist
- Jonah
- Judas Barsabbas
- Malachi
- Melchizedek
- Micah
- Moses
- Nahum
- Obadiah
- Samuel
- Seven Maccabees and their mother
- Simeon
- Zechariah (prophet)
- Zechariah (NT)
- Zephaniah
- Agatha of Sicily
- Agnes of Rome
- Angela of the Cross
- Æthelthryth
- Bernadette Soubirous
- Catherine of Bologna
- Brigid of Kildare
- Catherine Labouré
- Catherine of Siena
- Cecilia
- Clare of Assisi
- Eulalia of Mérida
- Euphemia
- Faustina Kowalska
- Faustina and Liberata of Como
- Genevieve
- Hiltrude of Liessies
- Joan of Arc
- Kateri Tekakwitha
- Lucy of Syracuse
- Maria Goretti
- María de las Maravillas de Jesús
- Narcisa de Jesús
- Patricia of Naples
- Rosalia
- Rose of Lima
- Teresa of the Andes
- Teresa of Calcutta
- Trasilla and Emiliana
- Ubaldesca Taccini
- Josephine Bakhita
- Catholic Church portal
- Saints portal