Blessed Jerónima de la Asunción

Jerónima de la Asunción, O.S.C. (Spanish: Jerónima de la Asunción García Yánez y De La Fuente; 9 May 1555 – 22 October 1630) was a Spanish Catholic nun and abbess who founded the Real Monasterio de Santa Clara (Royal Monastery of Saint Clare) in Intramuros, Manila, Philippines. For her efforts in establishing the first Catholic monastery in Manila and the Far East, the Vatican issued an apostolic decree for her beatification in 1734. This monastery was immortalized in the novel Noli Me Tángere, penned by the national hero, José Rizal. Jerónima was born in Toledo, Spain to Pedro García e Yáñez and Catalina de la Fuente of Toledo, who were pious, prosperous and of the lower nobility. Jerónima spent her childhood in Toledo, where she learned the basics of Christian life very early on. She grew up on the Calle de lod Letrados, next to the Church of San Marcos. At the age of fourteen, she met the great Carmelite reformer, Teresa of Ávila, after which she felt the calling to monastic life. She was also influenced by a biography of Clare of Assisi. On 15 August 1570 Jerónima entered the enclosed monastery of Santa Isabel de los Reyes of Toledo. At this monastery, she joined two of her paternal aunts who were already professed nuns in the community which follow the more austere First Rule of Saint Clare. She worked successively as a nurse, henkeeper, sacristan, vicar of the choir, and provisioner. She later occasionally functioned as Mistress of Novices, and gradually developed a reputation for being a holy woman. Wealthy donors would send her gifts and ask for her prayers. She commissioned devotional artwork and statues. "She sent pots of chicken and bacon to the prison and local hospitals. She handed out bread and eggs to beggars who frequented the convent torno (revolving door)." The notion of establishing a convent in Manila was first brought up to Jerónima in 1599 by the Dominican Diego Soria, who stressed its importance.