Rome (Italy). On 9 February 2026 the liturgical memory of the Beata eusebia Palomino yenesDaughter of Mary Help of Christians Beatified in Rome by John Paul II on 25 April 2004.
“The prayer of the humble penetrates the clouds” (Sir 35,17). Perhaps this is the reason that drives so many people to turn to the intercession of Blessed Sister Eusebia.
Born on 15 December 1899 in Cantalpino, in the province of Salamanca, Spain, she belongs to a large family (she is the third of eight children) and very poor in resources, but rich in faith, abandonment to divine Providence and charity towards the needy. Even as a child, Eusebia helped her parents as best she could to find the necessities for everyday life, even accompanying her father to ask for alms.
She herself says in her autobiography: “It fell to me to go with him, since my mother feared that something might happen to him and sent me to keep him company, while my mother and my two little sisters prayed for us so that nothing would happen to us and that the Holy Virgin would protect us in everything… I enjoyed it very much; everything seemed very beautiful to me, everything attracted my attention: the birds, the bridges, the streams, the train which I saw for the first time; finally, everything was a source of joy for me. The villages, the churches, everything seemed more beautiful to me than in my little village. The little houses where the train flags are placed, the toll booths, the streets, I liked everything very much and I said to my father: ‘How I would like to live in these places contemplating the fields and the birds and all these things that make me think of God!’.”
Eusebia was seven years old and until the end of her life she will testify to the bliss of the pure of heart, the meek, the humble. At ten years old he received his First Communion and at eleven he received Confirmation. The encounter with Jesus the Eucharist is his joy: “Every time I took communion I felt a great joy inside me because I had Jesus in my heart… I also felt deep in my heart that Jesus wanted me to give him my whole heart. And this from the day of my first communion.” Eusebia knew how to rejoice in the beauty of nature and the little things that life offered her, but precisely for this reason she knew how to make her existence a gift for everyone.
In the “Super virtutibus Decree” it is noted that “Endowed with great virtues, she earned the praise of the community and of the local people and of those who knew her. United with God, she advanced without interruption in holiness and aroused particular admiration for her humility, the ease with which she gave herself to everyone, her simplicity, her charity, her profound spirit of prayer and sacrifice, her ardor for the salvation of souls and the Christian education of girls, her diligent observance of the Rule and religious vows”.
Mother Antonia Colombo, Mother Mazzarello’s eighth successor at the helm of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, wrote a month before the beatification of Sister Eusebia Palomino: “Having become an FMA, her place is in the kitchen. The most tiring jobs belong to her. Having given herself over to God matures in her total availability and an absolute indifference to what is asked of her. Sister Eusebia does everything with pleasure and joy. There is no discontinuity between work and prayer: continuous praise rises to God from her life.
The ability to deal with the things of God in her, a woman of little education, is surprising. During the spiritual exercises in preparation for perpetual vows, carried out in the novitiate, Sister Eusebia was invited by the novice mistress to address a word to the community. ‘I will talk about the love of God,’ he declares without hesitation. Among those present, there is a novice who has read the works of Saint John of the Cross and other illustrious authors of spiritual theology. ‘What can a cook say?’, he thinks in his heart. She would later attest that up until that moment she knew God’s love in books, but she knew nothing about incarnate love, which instead shone through Sister Eusebia’s words and existence. Yes, because the Lord reveals himself to the humble, to children and enables them to praise and bless his name, to radiate the joy of a life transfigured by the experience of his presence recognized in every creature” (Circ. 856 of 24 March 2004).
In the eleven years of her life as an FMA (1924 – 1935), Eusebia was a cook and helper at home in Valverde del Camino, but despite having little education, in the festive oratory she took care of the youngest girls and the poorest and simplest people. Gregoria Moya, who was very close to the FMA community and a witness at the Beatification process of Sister Eusebia, says that her catechesis aroused admiration to such an extent that many were moved by curiosity to see how she, so humble, could communicate such a lofty doctrine regarding supernatural truths and adds: “The servant of God was sought after in a peculiar way by the poorest and simplest people while the richest remained as if disconcerted before her”.
And Mother Antonia, in the same Circular, recalls: “She lives without complications, far from retreats induced by feelings of inferiority or shyness. She is at ease with young girls, she even approaches the soldiers she meets, she also naturally treats ladies of high social class who seek her out to hear her speak about God with words that touch deeply and move towards conversion. This is the case of the noblewoman Dolores Fleming who was the first in Valverde to discover the greatness of soul of Sister Eusebia, expressed in the very human and delicate trait, in the discreet and measured words, who also knows how to get fired up and bold when it comes to promoting the interests of the kingdom of God.”
Blessed Eusebia teaches and encourages the belief that “God lifts up the humble” and through them changes history in unexpected ways.
date: 2026-02-08 16:05:00
Worth a look