Father José del Refugio Morales

 

He was born in Texcoco April, 4th, 1836, and received the name Jose  Isidoro. in Baptism. At the age of 13 ½ he entered the Apostolic College of Pachuca, of the Order of the Friars Minors. 

 

On December22, 1827, the Government of Mexico drove out the Spanish missionaries and they had to abandon these lands that they themselves considered as their second homeland. Seeing how the majority of the missionaries had had to abandon the College of Pachuca, the need to recruit national vocations  became more urgent; leading to opening an aspirancy and postulancy for all the young men who wanted to follow the Franciscan way of life. . 

On the 19th of November , 1849, young Jose Isidoro, received the habit, having been admitted as an aspirant to the Franciscan missionary life,  and two years later to the novitiate . According to the customs of the institutes it was then when he changed his name from Jose Isidoro to Jose del Refugio. On the 8th of July, 1860, Fray Refugio received the anointing to the priesthood, in a time of great difficulty for the Church because of the exclaustration.  He said: “There are moments when one finds himself outside of himself, as it happens to the priest, when for the first time he offers a vow, a promise, before angels and men, which unites him and makes him all Christ’s.

 

Fray Refugio collaborated in God’s work, spiritually accompanying a group of the Daughters of Mary, pious Young women, who desired to know , love and serve God. In 1973, Our Father Refugito chose, from among the Daughters of Mary, three young ladies who distinguished themselves among the others by their solid virtue. They were: Dolores Vázquez, Manuela Méndez y María de Jesús Maldonado.

 

Since the Laws of Reform severely made it illegal that three religious live together, our father Refugito asked these young women to continue living in their homes, each with their respective family, They would be religious, but living in their homes. However, these young devout, docile and obedient women experienced the yearning, more and more each day, to consecrate themselves in a more complete way. On the year 1874, they begged Father Refugito to clothe them with habit of the Franciscan third order. Father acceded to their pleas and clothed them with the habit of the Franciscan Tertiaries, instructing them diligently in the spirit of Saint Francis and of the Third order Regular. 

 

Our Founding Father met with them periodically to give them conferences and talks on spiritual formation in the home of their benefactors, the Ortegas. In the year 1875, he gave then the tertiary Franciscan habit and, in accordance with the rite of “nuns in their home” he changed their names. Miss Dolores Vazquez took the name of Sisser Maria de la Luz de Cristo Crucificado, Miss Manuela Mendez wanted to call herself SisterJuana de San Felipe Neri, and Miss Maria de Jesus Maldonado, received the name Sister Maria del Refugio de la Preciosa Sangre. It’s note-worhy that the Canon Law existing at that time, and that which concerned to the Franciscan Third Orders- allowed the  so-called “tertiary nuns at their homes”.