Saint Dulce Lopes Pontes
The Salvador sister remembered as the “good angel of Bahia”
- Rank
- Saint
- Kind
- Virgin, Founder, Religious
- Life
- 1914 – 1992
- Era
- 20th century
- Feast
- 13 August
- Countries
- Brazil
Life story
Maria Rita de Sousa Brito Lopes Pontes was born on 26 May 1914 in Salvador, in the Brazilian state of Bahia. In 1933 she entered the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God at Sergipe and took the name Dulce, after her mother. After her vows she returned to Salvador.
In the city she soon began to help families living in coastal slums and sick people with nowhere to go. From 1949 she sheltered some of the sick in a disused chicken coop on the grounds of her congregation's convent, which became the start of a long charitable work. In 1959 she founded the Obras Sociais Irmã Dulce, a charitable association, and the following year the Albergue Santo Antônio, a shelter for the sick, was opened.
From that small shelter her works grew into the Santo Antônio Hospital, one of the larger hospitals in Bahia, along with centres for children and disabled people. Locals simply called her Irmã Dulce, meaning Sister Dulce, and many respected her for her plain way of life. She died on 13 March 1992 in Salvador, aged seventy-seven.
She was beatified in 2011 and canonised by Pope Francis on 13 October 2019 in Saint Peter's Square; she was the first woman born in Brazil to be declared a saint. Her feast is recorded on 13 August. The works she began continue in Salvador under the name Obras Sociais Irmã Dulce.
Works and witness
- Entered the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception in 1933
- From 1949 sheltered sick people in a convent chicken coop in Salvador
- Founded the Obras Sociais Irmã Dulce in 1959 and the Albergue Santo Antônio in 1960
- Her works grew into the Santo Antônio Hospital
- Canonised on 13 October 2019, the first Brazilian-born woman saint
Saints from the same country
References
- Martyrologium Romanum
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints – biographical profile
- Obras Sociais Irmã Dulce – institutional history
Written by Anawim from documented history. Some details about ancient saints rest on tradition and are marked as such.