Vicky Crous

MAGDALENA AULINA I SAURA

BIOGRAPHY

Magdalena  Aulina i Saura was born on December 12 1897 in Banyoles, near Girona. She died on May 15 1956 in Barcelona. She was a secular nun and she joined the Irish Secular Institute of Parish  Workers.

She was the sixth daugther to Narcís Aulina. Her father was a wool and a coal merchant. Her mother was a housewife and a deeply Catholic woman. When Magdalena was  a little girl, she accompanied her older sister to do charity work. Later her older sister became a Carmelite nun. Another Aulina's sister was also a nun in Maria – Lestonac order.

When Magdalena was 15 years old, in 1912, she red Gemma Galgani´s biography and she was impressed, so she decided to become a God`s servant.

In 1921 she got a heart disease and her family and her doctors believed she would die. Then, Magdalena prayed to Galgani and wrote a novena dedicated to Galgani. On Abril 23 1923, Magdalena felt healthy and thought it was thanks to Galgani. So, in 1934 Aulina became an ardent promotor of devotion to Galgani.

In 1922 she founded  the Patronat d'Obres, in Banyoles, for girls' education,  so girls could improve their lives.

In 1926 Aulina collaborated with the families in her village to organize activities for women's liberation. Afterwards with some donations by wealthy families, she organized homes and schools for young women workers. Their name was Casa Nostra. 

In 1929 Aulina began to teach morning and evening lessons. and she opened a healh center with other fourteen people in the summer.

In 1939, Josep Cartaña, bishop of Girona forbade Magdalena's community of women, but then the bishop of Pamplona mediated and Magdalena and succeded. So in December, she signed an abjuration of her errors.

In 1941 after her conflict with the bishop Cartaña, Aulina had to move her Institute to Navarra, where she continued her activity and education to the poor people.

She founded houses in Aragon, Valencia and Rome.

I admire her became she devoted her life to the poor.

April 2018