Irmã Dulce Pontes

Irmã Dulce or Sister Dulce (* as Maria Rita de Souza Brito Lopes Pontes on May 26, 1914 in Salvador da Bahia, † March 13, 1992 ibid ) was a Brazilian Roman Catholic nun. She was beatified 2011.

Life

Maria Rita de Souza Brito Lopes Pontes was born the second of five children of the dentist Augusto Lopes Pontes and his wife Dulce Maria de Souza. Her mother died when she was six years old.

At 18, she joined the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God in Sergipe and received the religious name Dulce, after the name of her deceased mother. On August 15, 1934 made ​​his solemn vows.

She first worked as a teacher, but worried at the same time to the sick and dying. She broke to even empty houses to find a shelter for the homeless. In the Chicken Coop of her convent, she began in 1949 with the care of the sick and opened in 1960, the Hospital Santo Antônio, with 150 beds. In 1983, she had already increased it to 1,000 beds.

On May 26, 1959, she founded the Obras Sociais Irmã Dulce ( OSID ) (German social welfare Sister Dulce ), 1964, the Centro Educacional Santo Antônio (CESA ) (German Education Center Santo Antônio ) in Simões Filho for orphans.

In 1988 she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1992, she died after a severe lung disease.

Aftermath

The beatification process was initiated in 2000. On 22 May 2011 she was commissioned by Pope Benedict XVI. Geraldo Majella Agnelo from Archbishop Emeritus in Salvador da Bahia beatified.