Between February and April 2025, Sisters María José Meira (Dedé) and Fatima Borges travel on behalf of the General Team to a part of the Province of Europe.
Below we share the second chronicle of their trip, from February 25 to March 5, 2025, during which they visited the six communities of Valladolid, Spain. It was there that they celebrated the Congregation’s Foundation Day, February 26, and Ash Wednesday.
February 26th Celebrations
On the day of the Foundation of the Congregation, we participated in the Ave Maria School Mass with many parents, students, teachers and sisters, celebrating the 199th anniversary of the foundation of the Congregation. We were happy to see a familiar and close atmosphere, very much in the Vedruna style.
Meeting of Valladolid communities
In this city are the houses of six communities of sisters, with whom we met for a meeting of communities on February 26. About 50 sisters participated.
We shared with them the theme of our visit: “Synodality and Shared Leadership”, with a dynamic that interspersed moments of exposition, silences and resonances. It was a deep experience of rekindling hope, from the charism that brings us together. In the resonances of the group, it widened our hearts to hear words like these:
“From the beginning we have been responding to the needs of the people.”
“Along the way we have known how to fight with each historical moment and we have kept the torch lit, so today we cannot stay anchored in a time.”
We have been able to see the journey of many years, marked by expansion, in this reality of Valladolid; and the life today, in these times of reduced strength and possibilities, of how the group continues to seek new ways, together with the journey of the Province, keeping the torch burning and committing itself to Life, in creative and dynamic fidelity.
Jesus and Mary Community
This is a community organized according to the life of the sisters who, being older, can offer their services in pastoral or volunteer work. They are very much connected to the world, ecclesial and Congregational realities, with a deep sense of belonging and in prayerful communion with all these realities.
Jesus and Mary School
This began in 1867, and was the first school for nuns in Castilla y León. It is located in the building that was formerly the palatial home of the Vitoria family, built in 1615, and is one of the last examples of Valladolid Renaissance domestic architecture. When the building was purchased by the Congregation, it was transformed into a school. Much of the original architecture has been preserved: the courtyard, some spaces such as the coach houses, and even a well!
Visiting the school, we greeted several people who work there and also students. In addition to discovering the excellent facilities of the school, we could feel the very welcoming, cheerful and energetic atmosphere of the students playing on the sports field: there is a Vedruna atmosphere in the school. We saw that it is indeed a “School of care and embrace”, as it was written on one of its walls.
Among many other projects developed by this school, and that we can know on their website, we highlight the Vedruna Solidarity Project: this year they are committed, in an international network, with the Vedruna School of Modasa in India, with the aim of achieving a decent life for families, through the education of their children to help them find better paid jobs.
La Rondilla Community
In our community, in addition to continuing to be a presence with the people of the neighborhood and also in the parish, the sisters have accompanied, since their beginnings, two significant Associations:
Rondilla Neighborhood Association
It is a non-profit organization. Its main objective is the study and knowledge of the Barrio de la Rondilla in its different aspects and needs in order to intervene in the improvement of their material and social conditions. One of our sisters acts as an advisor on legal matters, in favor of people seeking help, especially migrant families.
La Rondilla Women’s Association
All the programs and actions developed by the Association are aimed at offering women a space for meeting, promotion, participation, vindication and solidarity. Also to girls and boys, families and the population in general, as it provides training and resources to achieve an egalitarian society, prevent and act against violence against women, and respond to emerging social needs, always from the pillars of Equality, Coeducation and Co-responsibility. One of our sisters actively participates in it.
Birdies
The community is a presence close to the neighborhood, especially to the elderly, who make up a significant part of the local population. The sisters collaborate in the Christian community of the neighborhood and are involved in different areas of work: one of them is a national teacher in a high school in the region; a second works as a nurse in a hospital in Segovia, where we had a community of sisters for many years; the third works as a volunteer in Caritas.
The latter also represents the Congregation in the Incola Network Foundation, where many sisters from Valladolid participate. The Incola Network was founded by several religious congregations, including ours, with the aim of being a network that provides comprehensive support to people in vulnerable situations, in defense of their rights so that they may enjoy a dignified life.
La Cistérniga
Our community marks a pastoral presence next to the San Ildefonso de La Cistérniga Parish, in collaboration with the Pavonian Fathers in the parish. This locality is considered a dormitory town, because most of its inhabitants work in Valladolid.
The sisters are also involved in volunteer and pastoral services in the region: a precious activity of listening to the people. The neighborhood knows them and sees them as people to whom they can entrust their problems and difficulties.
Santa Joaquina House
This is a community that accompanies the elderly and/or sick sisters. They have very organized the help that the sisters need in all areas of life, always seeking an integral accompaniment, based on the needs of each one and of the group as a whole.
There is a mutual collaboration between all the communities of the city around this house: sisters from these communities come to provide volunteer services, concrete tasks and also close and loving presence to the older sisters. It is a community very connected and in prayerful communion with the world, ecclesial and Vedruna Family reality.
Ave Maria Community
This community, also of older sisters, cares for and accompanies its members in everything they need to live the mission with meaning; they also collaborate in volunteer services at St. Joaquina House and Ave Maria College.
Ave Maria School
Also in this school, in addition to an explicit education in the Vedruna style and values, this year they are developing the Solidarity Project “Women building a new life”, of the Women’s Association La Rondilla. We found very nice this local link of Vedruna network, which widens and generates spaces for the educational community to know and engage with the struggle of this Association.
Some aspects that have caught our attention during these days have been:
- Our presence in three communities of insertion: with a long history of being a presence of Religious Life, inserted as neighbors in the neighborhood. It is incredible how they have contributed and continue today, bringing significant improvements in the social environment, in the formation of an awareness of citizenship, dignity and, above all, in the lives of the people, as a presence of listening and accompaniment “in good times and bad” as they say in Peru. Today, in general, the reality has changed a lot compared to what the first sisters who came to these neighborhoods found: in general, living conditions have improved. However, the issue of migration is still a very present reality, as well as that of the gypsy people.
- In our communities there is a clear and concrete commitment to solidarity, where sisters, to the extent of their possibilities and as far as they can reach, collaborate in volunteer services, whether in our two schools, or in ecclesial or social organizations, committed to the lives of people, especially migrants.
- In the cultural field, it is striking how bread is present in the culinary culture of this region and throughout Spain, with an incredible variety of types, which accompanies not only breakfast, but also lunch and dinner. Also the use of the words “hembra” and “varón” to designate “man” and “woman”.
The other chronicles of the visit are already available:
