(May 21, 2011) Sister Dulce Lopes Pontes is the most admired woman in the history
of Brazil, according to a newspaper of São Paulo. On Sunday, the nun who died less
than 20 years ago will be recognized as Blessed Dulce. She dedicated herself every
day throughout her life to the poor and the suffering," said Cardinal Geraldo Majella
Agnelo, the retired archbishop of her native Salvador da Bahia, when he learned of
her beatification.The cardinal will represent Benedict XVI in presiding over the beatification
of this 1988 Nobel Peace Prize nominee, who was twice visited by another blessed,
Pope John Paul II (in 1980 and 1991). The future nun was born in 1914 and baptized
Maria Rita. Her mother died when she was 6 and her aunts brought her up. At 13, one
of her aunts took her to see the poorest areas of the city, an event that awakened
her great sensitivity. Thus, at 18 she entered the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate
Conception of the Mother of God, where she took the name Sister Dulce.One of the inspirations
for her vocation was the life of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus. Sister Dulce founded
the St. Francis Union of Workers. Then she began to shelter sick persons in abandoned
houses of Salvador da Bahia. When they were evicted, she moved her shelter to an old
fish market, but the municipality obliged her to leave that site too. The only place
she could receive more than 70 people who needed medical care was the chicken coop
of the convent where she lived. The coop soon became an improvised hospital. Thus
began the history of another of her foundations: St. Anthony's Hospital, which was
opened officially in May of 1959, with 150 beds; now it cares for 3,000 patients daily.
In the last 30 years of her life, Sister Dulce's health declined. In 1990 she began
to worsen and was hospitalized for 16 months. While there she received a visit from
John Paul II, with whom she had had a private audience 10 years earlier. She was transferred
to St. Anthony's convent where she died on March 13, 1992. Thousands of men and women
in conditions of extreme poverty gathered for a last farewell before her mortal remains.
Last year her body was taken to the Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother
of God, where it was found to be incorrupt. The miracle for her beatification happened
in 2001 when Cláudia Cristiane Santos, who today is 42, survived an uncontrolled hemorrhage
after giving birth. The bleeding continued despite three operations. Doctors lost
all hope that she would survive but when her relatives asked for the intercession
of Sister Dulce, in a chain of prayer led by Father José Almí de Menezes, the bleeding
stopped immediately.