SHORT
BIOGRAPHY
Mother Mary Magdalene of the Sorrowful and
Immaculate Heart of Mary, known in the world as Margaret Mary Mathers,
was born in Leigh, Lancashire, on the 27th of January 1923. Her parents
were catholic. During her childhood, she often visited St.Joseph’s
church, in Leigh, ministered at that period by the Jesuits. She used to
listen to their sermons and went to confession to them.
She had a solid catechistic instruction,
and grew up with a simple but deep faith. She learned how to be faithful
to the Pope and to love the Church united to the Pope, following the example
of the English martyrs. Her mother taught her to love the Hearts of Jesus
and Mary.
During her youth she decided to work in
hospital and look after the sick. After attending the university, she
became a professional nurse, with several degrees. She got married and
had children. Her Scottish husband Bill was not a catholic, but always
respected her faith.
She became a franciscan tertiary. Called
by Padre Alessio Parente, a capuchin priest who was very close to Padre
Pio, to promote the cause of the future St. Pio of Pietrelcina in the
United Kingdom in the seventies and eighties, after a very serious accident
she was cured by Padre Pio himself. Since then on, she had been putting
into practice the message entrusted to her by the Saint of Pietrelcina,
who appeared near her bed and said: “Be a good franciscan, live
in poverty, love Jesus and Mary, Our Lady will open all doors”.
After leaving her job as a nurse in Liverpool
hospital, where she saved many babies from abortion, and where Padre Pio
came repeatedly for five years, curing and comforting the sick, Margaret
Mathers lost her husband. Later she made her vows in the hands of a Bishop
as a hermit of St. Francis, in Italy, and took the name of Mother Mary
Magdalene. She promised also faithfulness and loyalty to the Holy Pontiff,
by a sacred bond.
Her new name - Mary Magdalene - had this
meaning: she had to spend the rest of her life in imitating the example
of St.Mary Magdalene, who, called by Jesus, did penance to expiate her
past sins. Mother Mary Magdalene, following the footsteps of the Magdalene
in the gospel, loved very much the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, putting into
practice what her mother taught to her, here on earth, when she was a
child. She often prayed to St.Joseph and St.Michael the Archangel. Her
weapon was the Rosary.
She used to say it frequently, without interruption,
also to intercede on behalf of many persons who asked for her prayer.
She offered herself as a victim for sinners. She was endowed with celestial
charisms, about whose authenticity we leave the final judgement to the
Church.
She died in odour of sanctity on the 19th
of May 2007, at about 2.30am, at San Giovanni Rotondo (Italy), in Padre
Pio’s Hospital, called “Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza”.
She has been buried in San Giovanni Rotondo cemetery.
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