{"id":23115,"date":"2025-04-28T09:58:58","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T07:58:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vedruna.org\/route-of-exile-pain-challenge-and-mourning\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T15:39:28","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T14:39:28","slug":"route-of-exile-pain-challenge-and-mourning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vedruna.org\/en\/route-of-exile-pain-challenge-and-mourning\/","title":{"rendered":"Route of exile: pain, challenge … and mourning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This Easter, between 13 and 15 April, a group of sisters of the younger generations <\/strong>(GMJ), together with Sister Maria Ant\u00f2nia Gilibets, made the Route of Exile<\/strong>. We were a group of 17 sisters from the three zones of the Vedruna Province of Europe, two of them juniors, and a sister juniora from the province of Japan, who is finishing a stage of formation in Madrid. <\/p>\n\n

This exile was the last of the three that Joaquina<\/strong> lived , together with 14 sisters<\/strong>, between July 3, 1840 and September 16, 1843, in the context of the first Carlist war. Years of pain, of war, of flight and persecution, of uncertainty and loneliness, of needs and hardships, but also of faith and trust, of calls and challenges, of community and mutual support, of mission, dedication and solidarity. <\/p>\n\n

The experience of following in the footsteps of Joaquina and those sisters, from Berga <\/strong>to Perpignan<\/strong>, and back to Vic <\/strong>passing through B\u00e9ziers<\/strong>, has been for us very emotional and profound. <\/p>\n\n

In addition to what it means to make this journey trying to connect with the experience that these women made in those years and that so many of our brothers and sisters make every day, today, in so many places in the world, for us it had an added meaning of pain and mourning.<\/p>\n\n

The Route began after the loss of our sister Imma Bonada<\/strong>, who left us, prematurely and unexpectedly, on Tuesday, April 8, and whom we bid farewell, some from the memory and affection in the distance, and many of us in person, on Friday, April 11, in Granollers, together with her family and community. <\/p>\n\n

She had also been the one who, together with sister Maria Ant\u00f2nia, had prepared this Route, with great enthusiasm and affection. As a way of accompanying us in the pain for her loss and as a tribute to her and thanksgiving for her life, it was decided to continue with the program, as she, surely, would have wanted. <\/p>\n\n

That group of sisters who were forced to flee from the old Hospital of Berga<\/strong>, who had to walk for days crossing hard and uncertain roads, asking for help and lodging, with not always good reception, going hungry, thirsty and all kinds of hardships, also suffered, in the time of exile, the loss of three sisters of the group, at least two of them very young.<\/p>\n\n

So past and present, congregational and personal history, led us hand in hand during these days through the sacred places and the most significant milestones of this stage in the history of our family, somber and luminous in equal parts.<\/p>\n\n

We started our way, like them, in Berga<\/strong>, stepping on the same staircase that saw them leave and that still retains something of that time, although today the building that was then the hospital houses the premises of a police station.<\/p>\n\n

On the way ahead, in La Pobla de Lillet<\/strong>, we go to the street and house where it seems that the group was able to rest for a few days, a fact that is attested by a small niche with the image of Joaquina. <\/p>\n\n

There we set out on foot on a stretch of the road that took us to El Clot del Moro<\/strong>, crossing a wonderful natural landscape. For us it was a walk: beauty, fresh air and calm for the senses and the soul; but we did not stop trying to imagine what could have been that other road, 185 years ago… and the one that today so many brothers and sisters continue to travel, on foot, in a boat, or in a plane with a one-way ticket… <\/p>\n

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