Laura Montoya Upegui

The work of Laura Montoya took shape in 1914. With the support of Bishop Maximiliano Crespo, Bishop of Santa Fe de Antioquia, and accompanied by a few companions as well as her own mother, she undertook a first apostolic journey to the remote regions of Antioquia, notably among the Embera-Chamí Indians. From this impetus was born the Congregation of the Missionaries of Mary Immaculate and Saint Catherine of Siena, the first female community of the Church entirely devoted to the mission among the indigenous people of the Americas. The congregation received its approval in 1916; Laura pronounced her first vows on January 1, 1917, and her perpetual vows on December 8, 1924. Leaving the comfort of the cities, the religious sisters ventured into the forest, to Dabeiba and beyond, to live as closely as possible to the indigenous communities, sharing their living conditions in order to instruct and evangelize them. Laura governed the institute until 1929, and then again from 1938 until her death. At her passing in 1949, the congregation already counted ninety houses and several hundred religious sisters spread across several countries.

The holiness of Laura Montoya manifests itself in the union of a profound interior life and tireless missionary devotion. Her spirituality is summarized in her desire to "become indigenous with the indigenous to win them all for Christ," an expression of a charity that drove her to identify with the poorest and most despised. She bore a truly maternal compassion for these abandoned populations, going so far as to call them "my wound." On the order of her confessor, the Eudist priest Esteban Le Doussal, she wrote between 1925 and 1933 a spiritual autobiography titled Historia de las misericordias de Dios en un alma ("History of the mercies of God in a soul"), which reveals a mystical journey of great richness, in the tradition of Saint Teresa of Avila. A woman of letters and prayer, she expressed her desire for total self-giving through this aspiration: "I felt a great desire to have three long lives: one to dedicate to adoration, another to spend in humiliations, and the third for the missions." Her final years, lived in suffering and immobility, completed the configuration of her life into a continuous offering.

The cause of Laura Montoya led to her beatification, celebrated on April 25, 2004, by Pope John Paul II in Saint Peter's Square. The miracle recognized for this stage was the extraordinary healing of a woman, Herminia González, who was suffering from terminal uterine cancer. The canonization was subsequently celebrated by Pope Francis on May 12, 2013, in Saint Peter's Square, making Laura Montoya the first saint born in Colombia. The miracle accepted for the canonization was the scientifically unexplained healing of the physician Carlos Eduardo Restrepo, who suffered from a severe autoimmune connective tissue disease (lupus) and was cured around 2005 after commending himself to the Blessed; this miracle was recognized by the Holy See in 2012. During the ceremony, Pope Francis praised the one who knew how to "instill hope" in indigenous populations and teach them the faith while respecting their culture. Known in religious life as Mother Laura of Saint Catherine of Siena, the saint is inscribed in the liturgical calendar on October 21, the day of her birth into heaven.

The legacy of Laura Montoya continues first through the congregation she founded, the Missionaries of Mary Immaculate and Saint Catherine of Siena, commonly known as the "Lauritas" or Missionaries of Mother Laura. At the time of her canonization, the institute was present in about twenty countries, mainly in Latin America, but also on other continents, continuing its vocation of evangelizing indigenous peoples, education, and human promotion. A pioneering figure in the mission to the indigenous and in the defense of their dignity, Laura Montoya remains a model for the Church in Latin America and for female missionary vocations. Her autobiography, Historia de las misericordias de Dios en un alma, as well as her numerous spiritual and pedagogical writings, continue to be studied and republished. Her remains are venerated in Medellín, at the La Luz sanctuary (Sanctuary of Mother Laura), which constitutes the main center of her cult and a place of pilgrimage. As the first saint of her country, she is honored in Colombia as a national glory and an intercessor for the poor and the downtrodden.