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Blessed Maria Droste zu Vishering was born on September 8,
1863 in Munster, Germany. She was the daughter of Count Clemen Droste zu
Vishering and of Countess Helen von Galen. Her family was characterized by
heroic loyalty to the Church.
As a child, Maria had a strong will and was inclined to
emotional explosions, but she also had a very sensitive heart and a deep feeling
for others. She developed an exceptional generosity and singleness of purpose.
On the day of her Confirmation, July 8, 1875, she became conscious of a call to
an apostolic religious life.
At age 25, having ministered to a poor girl whom society
rejected she joined the congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good
Shepherd, in Munster. She was given the name, Sr. Mary of the Divine Heart.
In 1891, she devoted herself to the girls sent to the Good Shepherd Sisters in
Munster for rehabilitation and care. With an ardent love for youth ministry, she
maintains: “the most needy, the most miserable, the most forsaken are the
children I love best.”
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In 1894, at the age of 31, she was transferred to Portugal
and appointed superior of Oporto. She exercised a wide apostolate of services to
persons from all walks of life—rich and poor, clergy and laity. Sr. Mary of the
Divine Heart, was an active, capable, joyful religious, yet unknown to those
with whom she lived, she experienced intense mystical union with God. Towards
the end of her short life, Our Lord made known to her that He wanted the entire
universe consecrated to His Heart, and that she was to request this of the Pope.
This she did.
Pope Leo XIII was moved and requested an investigation.
Subsequently, he announced the consecration by means of the encyclical “Annum
Sacrum.” The preparation of this act would be preceded by a world-wide triduum
which Leo XIII termed, “the greatest of my pontificate.”
Sister Maria observed the triduum in heaven. She was never
strong physically: her health had so deteriorated that for many months she had
been an invalid, suffering excruciating pains from a spinal disease. She said to
her confessor: “My mission on earth will be completed as soon as the
consecration is accomplished.”
She died on June 8, 1899, the day before the feast of the
Sacred Heart.
On, June 11, 1899, the Pope solemnly consecrated the universe to the Heart of
Christ. Leo XIII told her father, a year later on May 7, 1900: “I call on her. I
call on her in all circumstances.”
Sister Maria was beatified by Pope Paul VI on November 1,
1975.
