The Children of the Blue Nun
Chapter XIXC: Sister María lies dying
“Why art thou looking at me so strangely?” Sister María asked her sister nuns.
“It’s just thou caught us by surprise, sister,” one of them answered her. “We’ve already gotten used to seeing thee lost in thoughts of death, looking down at the bones of thine own father in his sepulcher as if thou couldst discern him way beyond death. When we came to join thee in morning prayers, we found thee lying in the coffin with a pair of sandals by thy head. They seemed strange to us because all the women in our order are discalced.”
It was then that Sister María recalled the conversation that she had had with the Virgin the night before about the meaning of the sandals. Surely she herself must have placed them at her head after she fell asleep.
“Thou seemeth rather pale, Sister María of Jesus,” said another one of the nuns. “Dost thou not feel well? Thine eyes seem rather dim.”
“I am beginning to die, sister,” Sister María replied to her from her resting place. “The Virgin Mary sent one of her cherub angels to reveal to me how much time I have left. I will begin dying between the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord and the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit comes.”
All the nuns sighed in unison
upon learning the news that her days were numbered, until Sister María reminded them that none of her sisters knew neither the day nor the hour when the Lord would come to gather them away. She was remembering the parable of the five foolish virgins and the five prudent virgins.
The other nuns were astounded when Sister María told them: “Do not worried about me, for I am the most insignificant worm and the most vile sinner. I am not worthy that the Lord should enter under my roof.”
They looked at one another with great surprise, being that they considered that this damsel who would fly on the hands of angels and could appear in various parts
of the world to be a holy lady. They didn’t understand her deep humility instead of reveling in their presence.
“Who shall guide thy first steps into eternity, sister?” they asked her
“It shall be the man who taught the holy child how to be human and how to join his humanity to his divinity,” Sister María explained to them. “In theological terms, this is called the hypostatic union by which Jesus is completely human and completely God at the same time. His adoptive father, Saint Joseph, taught him how to live out both his natures as one.”
“Saint Joseph is the father of dreams and the patron saint of sacred silence,” the nuns exclaimed all together.
In the meantime, Sister María closed her eyes and, with a beatific smile, she started to intone the words for a happy death: “Good
Saint Joseph of Death ever blessed, in thine arms we are hoping to die. After death with thee then ever praying forth with thee into heaven to fly; forth with thee into heaven to fly.
“Good Saint Joseph of Death ever blessed, thou who died in God’s arms ever blest. We beseech thee to come unto us with such fervor, when swift death takes us unto our rest, when swift death takes us unto our rest.”
A bright light was seen to come toward the coffin. Sister María murmured: “Into thy hands, O Lord I commend my spirit.”
This historical fiction story is written by Taos historian and linguist Larry Torres. Find prior chapters of this story in Spanish and English at taosnews.com.