For the first time, the biography of Laura Montoya Upegui (1874-1949), written by the Spanish priest Manuel Díaz Alvarez, is being presented to the Italian public. The book “Laura Montoya, a Fearless Woman,” enhanced by a foreword from Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, will help spread the story and spirituality of this apostle of the Amazon, the first Colombian saint, canonized by Pope Francis in 2013.
Laura's story is intertwined with the history of her country and the Church of her time. A single woman from the late nineteenth century, a teacher and educator, whose childhood was marked by bereavement, poverty, and rejection. Despite her great suffering, the Christian formation she received in her family kept the flame of faith burning in her heart until her personal encounter with God. That encounter, which took place in an unusual way through contemplation of nature and an intuition of God's presence and love in creation, caused that weak flame, buffeted by the winds of pain and injustice, to blaze not only throughout her life but also through the lives of many young Colombian women of her time, and to continue setting the world ablaze with the fire of charity even today. Despite prejudice and misunderstanding, she undertook dangerous expeditions into the Colombian forests to educate and evangelize Indigenous people.
Her biography is filled with extraordinary events that unfold against all expectations as Laura allows God to carry the story forward. Thanks to her tenacity, Laura's work breaks through the barriers of a class-based society in the midst of social and political conflict (it is a time of civil war and the radicalization of anticlerical sentiments) and of a Church still too closed in on itself, unable to look to the least, make room for the laity, and “get its hands dirty” in evangelization. Like so many other saints, Laura anticipates the times by living firsthand the innovations of the Second Vatican Council and the teaching of Pope Francis: a Church “that goes forth,” at the service of the poorest and most marginalized, capable of giving its life to proclaim God's love to the farthest reaches of the world.
Miguel Cuartero Samperi
