All Saints Week - Narcisa de Jesús Martillo

One of my favorite aspects of Catholic Spirituality is the communion of Saints, holy men and women who have walked the Christian path before us. Models, spiritual friends, intercessors. Pretty groovy. So, this week in honor of the Feast of All Saints I thought I'd feature some new-to-me Saints here on Musings of a Discerning woman.

Today's Saint ... Narcisa de Jesús Martillo was born in 1832 in a small Ecuadorian village.  Her mother died when she was 6 and Narcisa was called to help with domestic chores.  She used to take her spare moments in the woods near her house, praying near a guyabo tree. Her father died when she was 19 and she moved to Guayaquil.  This is when she began her mission of helping people who were poor, the sick, and abandoned children.  She funded her mission by taking a job as a seamstress.  She also supported her eight brothers and sisters. Eventually, she moved to Lima and lived as a lay person in a Dominican convent. She died on December 8, 1869. She was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in 2008.

Read more about her here and here.