The two Isabel
Several times our website made commentary about the process of canonization of Isabel de la Madre de Dios, an Augustinian Recollect nun who died in Calzada de Oropesa (Toledo, Spain) in 1687. She is the last of the great foundresses of the early Recollec-tion for having started two monasteries dedicated, not by coincidence, to the Santísimo Cristo: that of Serradilla (Cáceres), to the Santísimo Cristo de la Victoria; and the last one, to the Santísimo Cristo de las Misericordias, in Calzada, where she died and is buried. The diocesan process of her canonization was opened in Toledo on January 18, 2008 and concluded a year after, on November 28, 2009.
There is the second Isabel, also an Augustinian Recollect nun, also a mystic, born as the former in the vicinity of Navalcan (Toledo), who is Isabel de Jesus, the aunt of the first. Both professed in the convent of Arenas de San Pedro (Avila) which now a days is gone. In that convent Isabel de Jesus died on June 9, 1648. There she lived as a religious for 22 years.
Fame of sanctity
In fact the process of Isabel de Jesus had been started in 1675, and her fame of sanctity stayed on among her folks through ballads, theatrical plays and also in a chapel that carries her name. But it is now, precisely on July 2, 2011, when the process has taken a canonical form, thanks to the effort of the Augustinian Recollect nuns in the convent of Serradilla whose foundation had been made known to her by the Lord in a vision.
Opening of the cause
The ceremony took place in the church of this convent of the Santísimo Cristo de la Victoria. There various representatives of all the branches of the recollects made them-selves present: in the first place the nuns from Calzada and other parts of Spain; a group of Recollect Friars; several Sisters of the Augustinian Recollect Missionaries; and many devotees from the town and other places related with Isabel. Amadeo P. Rodriguez- Magro, the bishop of Plasencia, presided the solemn ceremony.
After the invocation of the Holy Spirit, Samson Silloriquez, the Postulator for the Causes of Saints of the Order, presented a very brief biography of Mother Isabel. Then came the reading of the document from the Holy See that decrees the opening of the process. After that, those responsible of the process made their oath to fulfill their task faithfully and diligently
Being the ultimate responsible, it is incumbent on Bishop Rodriguez- Magro to promote the cause that he did through an Edict in which he informs the faithful and invites them to present declaration, that can be useful information, in favor or against the cause.