The Chapel of Our Mother of Good Counsel, in the Collegiate Church of San Isidro, now has a plaque commemorating Antonia María de Oviedo y Schönthal, foundress of the Oblate Sisters of the Most Holy Redeemer.
The unveiling of the plaque, before the Eucharist of Thanksgiving, took place on Tuesday, March 14, in the collegiate church of San Isidro, in the context of the International Meeting to mark the closing of the Bicentenary of the birth of Antonia Maria.
The Redemptorist Father Alberto Eseverri blessed the plaque to commemorate the foundress of the Congregation and shared a brief reflection about her. The unveiling of the plaque gathered together the sisters and lay people in Ciempozuelos for the closing of the Jubilee Year dedicated to Antonia.
Devotion to Good Counsel
Devotion to Our Lady of Good Counsel goes back to the time, when our foundress turned to Mary, seeking light and help to discern well what God wanted from her.
Antonia came to this church in Calle Toledo after the Benedictine bishop José María Benito Serra proposed that she take on the mission with women who wanted to leave prostitution in Madrid at the time.
Thanks to the Historical Library of the Congregation (I, p. 240), we know the testimony of Antonia herself:
“After mature reflections,
of long prayers
and violent struggles;
as well as a special grace
of Our Lady of Good Counsel
I finally decided to embrace the beautiful but hard and difficult mission of working for the liberation of these poor women.
Fiat!
(sistersoblates.org)
