PAX – SISTER CARMELITA RODRIGUES DOS SANTOS

PAX!

Renewing our faith in the Resurrected Christ, in which we place our certainty and hope, we announce, moved and with gratitude, that on February 4^th 2025, at 00:07 (local time), at the Hospital Regional of Cáceres (Mato Grosso / BRAZIL), the Celestial Husband welcomed into his arms to,

SISTER CARMELITA RODRIGUES DOS SANTOS

Province “Mother of Divine Providence”

with 68 years of aged and 38 year of Religious Profession

Sr. Carmelita born in Mato Verde (Minas Gerais / Brazil), on January 17^th, 1957. She grew up in a family with strong Christian values, including her father was a catechist. Within this family cradle, her formation matured and she dreamed God’s dreams: she wanted to be all His and evangelize with Him.

Due to a severe drought in Minas Gerais, the family emigrated to other healthy areas and chose Mato Groso and precisely in Figueirópolis d’Oeste. There, in contact with the life of the Church, she had the opportunity to mature in her dream of becoming a Religious.

She joined the Congregation on July 31^st, 1979, in the Community of Jauru / Mato Grosso, taken by his parents on the day they celebrated their wedding anniversary. She was welcomed by Sr. Magdalena Damiani, Sr. Isabel Amboni, Sr. Maria del Moro, Sr. Barnabe Tomé (all in memorial), Sr. Ana Carniato and Sr. Joana da Silva (Sr. Carmelita). At the time, Mother Carla Borasi was the General Superior.

On January 27^th, 1985, she entered the novitiate in Osasco / San Paolo with Sr. Lucia Gava as Mistress.

She made her Religious Profession on January 18^th, 1987, in Osasco / San Paul in the Saint Pius X Chapel.

From the beginning, Sr. Carmelita was the personification of the true Benedictine due to her delicacy, hospitality, simplicity and humility.

A determined and courageous woman has always known how to take risks for the good of others. Only those who knew her in her experience with the peasants of Tacopaia/Melga in Bolivia will be able to deduce the size of her good and merciful heart. With a strong missionary spirit, she knew how to live poverty, austerity and sacrifice, giving herself wholeheartedly to that mission among the poor. Wherever this great missionary went, she left traces of mercy and compassion, especially to the poorest and most vulnerable: Paraguay, Mozambique, Bolivia, Brazil.

Sr. Carmelita leaves a legacy of faith and abandonment in God’s will. This year, in January, she went to her family’s home to rest and prepare for a new mission in Bolivia, but the sad and unexpected diagnosis of an aggressive and violent cancer imposed pain and suffering on her days. Never backed down. She lived a true holocaust of surrender to God, even under the eyes of her family and religious sisters. The entire Congregation joined together in prayer! Sr. Leontina Vitalino and, lately, Sr. Madalena Paz are witnesses of how much this sister of ours was God’s transparency and attracted with her smile, despite suffering. Slowly and in silence, God prepared her for the definitive mission, living 20 days of true holocaust!

From the heart of each one of us, gratitude rises to God for having deserved such a great gift, our dear Sister Carmelita. However, we gave the word to our General Superior who knew her very closely:

In this Jubilee Year, the Lord asked our Religious Family for the even greater sacrifice of one of our Sisters: our dear SISTER CARMELITA RODRIGUES who always said YES to the Lord, she who made her life a constant DONATION, she who witnessed to us a life of SIMPLICITY and HUMILITY, she who brightened our encounters with her presence, with her stories; she who lived the Mission with great PASSION, she who loved and witnessed with her life the lives of our FOUNDRESSES, she who loved and identified with JESUS, the Consecrated One of the Father; when she was called to SLOW MARTYRDOM due to an aggressive cancer, she knew how to remain united to Jesus, accepting, offering herself, surrendering herself into the hands of God. Sister Carmelita greatly enhanced our Congregation with the testimony of someone who found in Jesus the treasure of her life, the precious pearl. With joy, she left everything to follow Jesus, with joy she participated in his mission, with courage and confidence she participated in his passion and death, in the certainty of being embraced by Him in glory. “Come, Wife of Christ, receive the crown that has been prepared for you from all eternity”. Sister Carmelita, you left us, to the Church and to the world the perfume of HOLINESS. Your mission now continues in heaven. Intercede for us! Help us to carry out our mission, as Pilgrims of Hope! Continue to call many young girls to our Religious Family! For everything, our eternal GRATITUDE! See you soon!!! The Paradise is our destination!

The teenage mothers, with their children, Sister Assunta and the Workers, from the Centro de Madres, in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, her new mission also spoke out as they were eagerly awaiting for her:

Sister Carmelita, we accompanied you during these 20 days of Calvary and you lived it in acceptance without complaints, without protests… We were waiting for you to share the Mission with us, to laugh and also to worry. Your place is empty, but I am sure that you and God will fill it with serenity, peace, joy and love, because you, Sr. Carmelita, will intercede. See you in Heaven dear Sister.

Yes, Sister Carmelita leaves for all of us the certainty that embracing the unexpected with faith and dignity is the key to a happy eternity.

Carmelita, it does not seem true that you are already with Jesus. Pray for us, you who were the great promoter of vocations, now continue with Jesus the mission that is so important for our Congregation.

We already miss your presence so much!

Sister Carmelita, by divine design, will be buried in her beloved Mato Grosso. Like a seed planted in this ground, we have hope that it will be reborn and flourish in many holy vocations.

The funerals will take place in Figueirópolis d’Oeste, with her family on February 4^th, 2025.

In communion of prayers, united with all the Sisters of the Province, Mother of Divine Providence, the Oblates, her mother and brothers, relatives and friends, let us entrust the Sister of ours, into the arms of the Providence.

“My soul, bless the Lord and do not forget so many benefits of your hand” (Ps 102)

(from the Remembrance of her Perpetual Profession)

REST IN THE PEACE OF THE LORD!

Sr. Maria das Dores Paz – General Secretary