Saints Who Wanted To Be Religious?

[thepiaheart]

Hi! I'm looking for examples of saints (or blesseds, etc.) who wanted to be religious but were unable to pursue that vocation. I am particularly interested in circumstances of these individuals marrying, but would love to hear about other circumstances as well. (Between the two, I can think here of St. Therese's parents, the Martins, and St. Gemma Galgani.)

 

Thanks!

[Alma Misionera]

St. Gianna Molla wanted to be a missionary in Brazil with her brother. (I'm not sure if she felt this was as a religious or as some kind of lay missionary.) Either way, she had bad health, and at the advice of her spiritual director, focused on her "mission" at home. She was very involved in Catholic Action, and did wonderful work as a doctor. She was married, and died to save the life of her unborn child.

[OnlySunshine]

St. Gemma Galgani is the first that leaps to mind

 

Bl. Zelie and Louis Martin (St. Therese's parents)

 

St. Benedict Joseph Labre

 

 

[OnlySunshine]

nvm.

 

Got the saints wrong.  :blush:

Edited July 8, 2013 by MaterMisericordiae

[Spem in alium]

 

St. Rose of Lima

 

 

 

Haha, I was going to mention her :) Love St Rose!

 

St Rita of Cascia (she wanted to enter a convent, but her parents arranged a marriage for her. She did eventually enter after her husband died though).

[OnlySunshine]

Haha, I was going to mention her :) Love St Rose!

 

St Rita of Cascia (she wanted to enter a convent, but her parents arranged a marriage for her. She did eventually enter after her husband died though).

 

Did St. Rose really want to be a nun?  I put both her and St. Catherine of Siena and then I found out that St. Catherine did not want to be married or take a nun's veil.  She eventually asked permission to wear the tertiary Dominican habit which was usually reserved for widows and the like.  St. Rose emulated her in the most extreme sense so I wasn't sure if St. Rose really wanted to be a nun or if she desired to be a tertiary, too.

[OnlySunshine]

Also, I would put Bl. Imelda Lambertini.  She was only 11 when she died after receiving the Eucharist for the first time.  She was living in a Dominican monastery from age 9 and wanted to become an actual nun later in life.  She ardently desired to receive the Eucharist but was denied because the Superiors and priests thought she was still too young.  Back then, the norm for receiving 1st communion was around 12.  She was praying in the monastery chapel one day after all the nuns had left to complete their duties.  However, when Imelda was missing, they went looking for her and found her in the chapel.  The most amazing thing occurred -- Jesus, Himself, levitated a Host above Bl. Imelda.  The nuns retrieved the priest who took the host and gave it to Bl. Imelda.  All of them believed that Jesus wanted Imelda to receive the Eucharist.  She died in ecstasy.  She is now one of the incorruptible saints.  :)

 

http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=125

 

http://saints.sqpn.com/blessed-imelda-lambertini/

Edited July 9, 2013 by MaterMisericordiae

[Sr Mary Catharine OP]

I wouldn't include Bl. Imelda. She was living in the monastery and wearing the habit. All very "normal" at that time. They were child oblates. St. Thomas Aquinas is an example, also.

 

St. Rose definitely did not want to become a nun but a Dominican tertiary!

 

 

[Spem in alium]

Did St. Rose really want to be a nun?  I put both her and St. Catherine of Siena and then I found out that St. Catherine did not want to be married or take a nun's veil.  She eventually asked permission to wear the tertiary Dominican habit which was usually reserved for widows and the like.  St. Rose emulated her in the most extreme sense so I wasn't sure if St. Rose really wanted to be a nun or if she desired to be a tertiary, too.

 

 

St. Rose definitely did not want to become a nun but a Dominican tertiary!

 

I've read in a few places that she wanted to become a nun but her parents wouldn't allow her to, so she joined the Third Order of St Dominic and stayed home to support her family. But I could be wrong. At any rate, I think she was amazing! :)

[OnlySunshine]

I wouldn't include Bl. Imelda. She was living in the monastery and wearing the habit. All very "normal" at that time. They were child oblates. St. Thomas Aquinas is an example, also.

 

St. Rose definitely did not want to become a nun but a Dominican tertiary!

 

The reason I included Bl. Imelda is that she wasn't an actual nun at that time since she was too young.  She wanted to when she was older, though.  :)

Edited July 9, 2013 by MaterMisericordiae

[Sr Mary Catharine OP]

I've read in a few places that she wanted to become a nun but her parents wouldn't allow her to, so she joined the Third Order of St Dominic and stayed home to support her family. But I could be wrong. At any rate, I think she was amazing! :)

 

Her parents really didn't want her to become a nun but they certainly were not happy about her decision to become a mantalatte. She tried to become a Poor Clare and when she stopped at the Dominican church to pray she couldn't move from the altar rail until she realized that God did not want her to enter the monastery. She then realized she was called to be a tertiary. In her family's eyes that was even worse! She had some mother. She should be the patroness of vocation discernment! Later her mother entered the Dominican monastery that was founded in Lima and that is still there.
 

[Spem in alium]

Her parents really didn't want her to become a nun but they certainly were not happy about her decision to become a mantalatte. She tried to become a Poor Clare and when she stopped at the Dominican church to pray she couldn't move from the altar rail until she realized that God did not want her to enter the monastery. She then realized she was called to be a tertiary. In her family's eyes that was even worse! She had some mother. She should be the patroness of vocation discernment! Later her mother entered the Dominican monastery that was founded in Lima and that is still there.
 

 

Wow! That's amazing - I never knew that about her. St Rose is my Confirmation saint, and as someone who's discerning a vocation to religious life, I'm very glad she is :) 

[Pax_et bonum]

I didn't think of it until Spem said that St. Rose is her Confirmation saint, but St. Kateri, my Confirmation saint, wanted to be a nun. She and a group of Amerindian women converts wanted to create a religious community, but the Jesuits discouraged them because they were still young in the faith. St. Kateri made a private vow of virginity though.

 

I swear I've read stories about saints who wanted to be religious or celibate but were given in marriage by their families for political reasons, but I can't think of any besides St. Rita. I remember one woman saint had taken a vow of virginity but had to marry someone, and they had a josephite marriage since her husband respected her vow. I don't know who it was  though!

[TheresaThoma]

 

I swear I've read stories about saints who wanted to be religious or celibate but were given in marriage by their families for political reasons, but I can't think of any besides St. Rita. I remember one woman saint had taken a vow of virginity but had to marry someone, and they had a josephite marriage since her husband respected her vow. I don't know who it was  though!

 I remember reading about a saint like that but I am spacing her name as well, I am working on finding her though!

[OnlySunshine]

I didn't think of it until Spem said that St. Rose is her Confirmation saint, but St. Kateri, my Confirmation saint, wanted to be a nun. She and a group of Amerindian women converts wanted to create a religious community, but the Jesuits discouraged them because they were still young in the faith. St. Kateri made a private vow of virginity though.

 

I swear I've read stories about saints who wanted to be religious or celibate but were given in marriage by their families for political reasons, but I can't think of any besides St. Rita. I remember one woman saint had taken a vow of virginity but had to marry someone, and they had a josephite marriage since her husband respected her vow. I don't know who it was  though!

 

I know St. Therese's parents had originally intended a celibate marriage and lived it for 2 years until their spiritual director advised them to sanctify their marriage vows through procreation.  Imagine if they hadn't?

 

JP2 beatified Luigi and Maria Beltrame Quattrocchi who bore 4 children but later lived separately and committed to a Josephite Marriage.

[AnneLine]

OK, I can share a few with you. :)

 

Ven. Maria Luisa de la Pena (aka Mother Luisita)

 

She was the foundress of the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles (in Alhambra and Duarte, California), and she DEFINITELY fits your description.   And she lived for a number of years as a lay woman.  I have friends in the community, and know the story of the foundress well!

 

 

Luisita wanted to be a sister from the time she was a small child, but her parents placed her in an arranged marriage with a medical doctor, Dr. Rojas.  During the honeymoon, he asked her what she wanted to do on their honeymoon, and she begged to go visit the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in Guadalajara.  He thought it was odd, but complied, even when she said she wanted to talk to the Rev. Mother by herself.  After that conference, she came out and announced to her astounded husband that it was all decided and she was going to stay there and be a sister!  The doctor went in and talked with Rev. Mother, and the two of them then explained to Luisita that she was married, and she wasn't going to be a nun!   She and the doctor had a number of years of marriage until his death, and they set up a hospital together.   As he was dying, he told her that she had always been a good wife to him, and that she had his blessing to enter a convent now, as he knew that was where her heart had always been. 

 

She entered the Carmelites in Guadalajara (the house that eventually spawned Cristo Rey in San Francisco), but while she was a novice, the Bishop came and ordered her out because the hospital she and the doctor had founded had fallen apart in her absence.  She came out, fixed it up, again put it under other people's control, and then re-entered the Carmelites.  A few months later, the Bishop was back -- OUT!!  hospital needs you, and if you still want to be a Sister, join THIS group of Sisters so you can run the hospital after you finish your novitiate.  She did so, along with all the women who were helping her with the hospital.  Only after they had made their vows did they discover that the constitutions of that community did NOT allow them to run a hospital!!!!  The bishop said that Luisita HAD to leave, and gave the choice to the others to stay or leave... most of them stayed.

 

So.... once again poor Luisita had to start all over again from scratch as a lay woman.  A few months go by... and the Bishop is back.  (AnneLine would have chased him away with a frying pan!)  He now says, it is not appropriate for a group of lay women to be running a hospital..... you need to become a religious community!   And so they affiliated with the Carmelites as a Third Order Regular community (which is what they are to this day).   They set up shop in the Guadalajara area... and got caught up in the Mexican Cristero struggle and Mother Luisita and a group of the sisters were able to escape to the USA (and others hid in homes in Mexico in lay clothing), ending up doing housework for the Christian Brothers at St. Mary's College (now in Moraga, CA), which was part of the San Francisco diocese at that time.  When the LA bishop heard of their plight, he said it wasn't OK for these well-trained nurses to be doing custodial work for the Christian Brothers, and that there was no need for the Jesuits to hve to support them (the Jesuits were taking care of them, as they had with the Cristo Rey nuns who also had escaped....).  The LA Bishop asked them to come to the LA diocese, where he needed nursing sisters to run a sanitarium for Spanish-speaking women who had TB.  It was the start of what would be Santa Teresita Hospital in Duarte (part of LA diocese).  They eventually did the hospital/healthcare work, ran a retreat house, and a home for children, and also taught school.  They are still doing all/most of those ministries (although there have been some changes through the years...)

 

You can read all about it (and her!) on the website of the Carmelite Sisters. AND they have her diary available to download... written in code during the Mexican persecutions.  A few things you can see in that code.....  'Ignatius' sons' are the Jesuits. :)   'weddings' are vows!   'vacations' re retreats!   You can make good guesses beyond those!!!!! 

 

More Bio

http://www.carmelitesistersocd.com/mother-luisita/

 

Letters

http://www.carmelitesistersocd.com/letters/

 

Remembrances by people who knew her

http://www.carmelitesistersocd.com/remembrances/

 

Another person I think fits the description was Mary of Modena, the Duchess of York and future wife of King James the II of England!   She was set-up in an arranged marriage (usual fate of princesses in those days....), and in 1676 St. Claude de la Colombière was sent to England as her chaplain. 

 

I read in a biography of St. Margaret Mary that she was very unhappy at the marriage, and that the only way she agreed to go would be if they sent a chaplain to be her personal confessor.  (I think she lucked out with St. Claude!!!)   She had a long marriage, and raised a bunch of children!

 

Here's a link to info on her (although it doesn't mention the wanna-be religious aspect.... so I can't be sure.) 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_of_Modena

 

Good video, below, but the 'pretty' script is hard to read - just pause the video so you can read as needed.

 

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xOBRlNc0c4[/media]

 

Another person who fits the description is the Carmelite blessed, Bl. Marie of the Incarnation.  She wanted to be a Sister but her parents forbade it.  She entered the Carmelites after her husband's death and the children were raised... but before that as Barbe Acarie, she had a very well attended 'salon' - 'the place to be' in society! - and moved in very influential circles.  She kept the family out of poverty when her husband lost his money in a financial panic.  (Certainly she sounds modern!)  

 

She helped Bl. Anne of Jesus bring the Carmelites to France.  

 

After the death of her husband, Pierre, she entered one of the Carmelite communities she had helped to found as a lay sister.... and that after a serious physical injury that left her partly disabled!

 

http://www.madame-acarie.org/presentation.php?lang=en

 

I am sure there are others!!!!  We need to FIND them!!!!!

 

 

Edited July 9, 2013 by AnneLine

[Spem in alium]

Oh goodness, AnneLine....thank you so much for sharing the stories of these remarkable women! Just amazing! :)

[BarbTherese]

.................probably heaps and heaps of saints on Phatmass who want to be religious  :) ....

..................... praying so.......

[beatitude]

 I remember reading about a saint like that but I am spacing her name as well, I am working on finding her though!

 

St Elizabeth of Hungary.

[thepiaheart]

Y'all are great. THANK YOU.