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 greatest foundresses of the early Recollection 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 almost two years after, on November 28, 2009. There is the second Isabel, also an Augustinian Recollect nun, also a mystic, was 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.
The process of canonization of Isabel de Jesus was started in 1675, and the fame of sanctity had lasted among her town folks in ballads, theatrical plays and including a chapel in her name. But the process was not done according to ecclesiastical requirements until July 2, 2011 thanks to the effort of the Augustinian Recollect nuns of the convent of Serradilla (Cáceres), whose foundation had been made known to her by the Lord in a vision.
Witnesses “de auditu”
Last February 17 a total of 20 witnesses presented themselves to an ecclesiastical Tribunal in order to give their testimony on the life, virtues and fame of sanctity of the Servant of God Isabel de Jesus, the aunt of Madre Isabel de la Madre de Dios. Obviously, all witnesses were de audito, for having heard their forefathers talked about Isabel de Jesus as a saint. The majority of them was of advanced age, even as old as 101 as doña Gregoria Martin Gonzalez. For this reason, the Judge Delegate of the diocese of Plasencia (Cáceres), Francisco Rico, together with the notary, went to Navalcan (Toledo, Spain), the town where the two Augustinian Recollect Isabels came from and where most of the witnesses live.
One of the parish halls was converted into the hall of the Tribunal. There, the witnesses took turn in presenting and signing their declaration. Prior to that, they attended the mass presided by the Postulator of the Cause, Fr. Samson Silloriquez, an Augustinian Recollect. In his homily, he invited them to give thanks to the Lord for the causes of canonization and the speedy elevation on the altars of both Isabel de Jesus as well as of her niece Isabel de la Madre de Dios, daughters of the town and Augustinian Recollects.