(1904-1955) The anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima, Portugal, in 1917, is also the memorial of a Portuguese mystic. At age 14, Alexandrina was injured in a jump from a window to escape a rapist, and was fully paralyzed by 19. She became a mystic and visionary who, as a member of the Salesian Cooperators, continually offered her suffering and prayers for the salvation of souls. For four years, she inexplicably overcame her paralysis every Friday for three hours to relive the Passion of Christ before collapsing again. For the last 13 and a half years of her life, she lived with no food other than the Eucharist, which baffled her doctors.
“With the example of Blessed Alexandrina, expressed in the trilogy ‘suffer, love, make reparation,’ Christians are able to discover the stimulus and motivation to make ‘noble’ all that is painful and sad in life through the greatest evidence of love: sacrificing one’s life for the beloved” (Pope Saint John Paul II, beatification homily, April 25, 2004). Many of the Twelve Steps make use of these spiritual principles.
“I am happy, because I am going to Heaven” (Blessed Alexandrina Maria da Costa’s last words).
Reflection by Brad Farmer