Blessed Conchita of Mexico (1862-1937)

 

When Conchita was still a child, she often prayed in front of the Blessed Sacrament, “Lord, I feel so incapable of loving you; therefore, I want to marry.  Give me many children so that they love you more than I can.”  At the tender age of 13, Concepción Cabrera de Armida was engaged to be married.  At 22 she married and later became a mother of nine – two girls and seven boys.  Widowed after 16 years, by the end of her life she had fulfilled all of the vocations of a woman:  she was a grandmother, founded a religious order and with the permission of Pope Pius X, entered the order and died in the arms of her children, (canonically as a religious nun).

Speaking about her husband, Pancho, Conchita wrote: “Never did my love for him, so full of tenderness, hinder me from loving God.  I loved him with a great simplicity, as wholly enveloped in my love for Jesus.  I did not see there was any other pathway for me to come to God…” (Conchita, p. 15)  Throughout her life, Conchita longed for a deeper, more intimate relationship with God.  She concerned herself with only heavenly things, though she was completely normal in her social life, neither a recluse nor outwardly vocal about her love for God.  “Under my silken gowns – I did not care whether they were but of cotton – at the theater and at the dance I wore a belt of haircloth, delighting in this for the sake of my Jesus.” (Autobiography 1, 73-74) 
At the age of 27, Conchita heard the voice of Jesus for the first time.  “Your mission will be to save souls, especially the souls of priests.”  Conchita’s life continued in a daily routine of joys and sorrows.  She said, “Yesterday, I celebrated my thirty-seventh birthday.  Externally, it was for me a day filled with all the satisfactions I could wish from my husband, my children and other members of the family, and yet sadness, emptiness, filled my heart, still in suffering and struggling to control myself.  I had had the joy of seeing my children receive many prizes at school and of hearing them loudly applauded.  Yet this produced in me movements of vanity and I did my best to overcome them.  I offered up to the Lord all the presents I received, remaining in my cherished poverty.  I tremble when I think of my weakness, the world offers us so numerous occasions to give in and I feel myself capable of anything.  Yesterday, I renewed my total oblation to the divine will, abandoning myself without reservation into the hands of God.”  (Conchita p.36)

One year later her husband would fall ill.  Conchita wrote that it was for him, the greatest failure of his life, to leave his children so young, knowing he would die.  But by the end, he was abandoned to the will of God.  After his death, she wrote in her diary: “My God!  My heart is torn with pain and also with remorse that I did not reveal to him the secrets of my soul… I experienced, as it were, horror for the spiritual life.  What days I spent!  What hours!  What nights!  Oh God’s grace, of what are you capable!  It is certain that during these days I could but pray thus: ‘May Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven!’ But from that moment on, I felt the force of the Holy Spirit for accepting the terrible blow which directly struck my heart and took away their father from my children (September 27, 1901).   Conchita was drawn by this despair to begin anew in her life, to strive for perfection as a mother since her perfection did not come while she was a child or a wife.  She writes:  “…Let us see whether as a widow, I am going to seek my perfection and become a saint on carrying out the sacred duties of a mother.”  (Diary, October 1901) It was only then that the Lord mystically united Himself with her, marking the turning point of her life.  Surviving the death of four children, she was left with five:  one priest, one religious nun and three who married. Most extraordinary is the consistency of the accounts of Conchita’s personality and life.  Interviewed several times by many different religious figures, her children all had the same words to say about their mother.  She was balanced, simple, fun-loving, always turning the conversation toward Christ without boring anyone.  She had a deep love for the poor and those who suffered.  She wore a constant serenity that made even the most difficult situations, possible to get through.  “She told us time and again, ‘Everything passes, except having suffered for God out of love.’”  The Lord led Conchita to an always-deepening interior life with Him.  He led her to prayer.  She received visions about the renewal of the Church and about her own mission and vocation as a mother for priests and foundress of five different communities.  Each community carries the sign of the Cross and a pierced heart as she often saw in her visions.  Conchita died in 1937 at the age of 75.  Her sons as well as Father Jose Guadalupe Trevino testify that an amazing synthesis of the spirituality of the Cross imprinted itself upon Conchita.  As she was dying, her appearance was seen to change:  no longer was there the face of a woman but the Countenance of the Crucified.  “Love is what gives life to all the virtues, to all good works.  LOVE IS ALL” (Diary, September 21, 1900).   

For more information on Conchita, her thoughts, visions, words of wisdom to her children, to her communities, there are several books available:
Armida, Concepcion Cabrera.  A Mother’s Letters, A Vision of Faith in Everyday Life.  Sister Dolores Icaza Conrey, R.C.S.C.J., Society of St. Paul, 2004.
Armida, Concepcion Cabrera.  Conchita, A Mother’s Spiritual Diary.  M.M. Philpon, O.P., Society of St. Paul, 1978.
Armida, Concepcion Cabrera.  To My Priests: A Translation of A Mis Sacredotes.  Archangel Crusade of Love Publishers, 1929.