RMG – 5 June 1816 - 2016: 200 years since the birth of Venerable Dorothy De Chopitea

03 June 2016

(ANS - Rome) - Venerable Dorothy De Chopitea, wife and mother of six children, was the first Salesian Cooperator whose cause for beatification was introduced. She was one of the very few people whom Don Bosco called “mamma”.  She was truly a mother to everyone, always ready to help. No fewer than 31 foundations were started thanks to her generosity.

Dorothy was born in Santiago de Chile on 5 June 1816, into a very wealthy family of Spanish origin. She was three years old when the family moved, for political reasons, to Barcelona. At sixteen she married the wealthy merchant Giuseppe Maria Serra. They had six daughters who all became “excellent Christians and exemplary mothers".

The virtue that shone most in her was charity. "God’s almsgiver” sacrificed her fortune more than anybody else in Barcelona at that time. In first place came her love for the poor: "they will be my first thought," she used to say.  Don Rinaldi, who knew her personally, testified: "I saw with my own eyes many cases of aid to children, widows and the elderly, unemployed, and sick ... the Servant of God performed the most menial services for the sick." From her husband she had full trust and cooperation. When he died, she devoted herself full time to her mission.

In this period she developed a growing relationship with the Salesians and the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. She wrote to Don Bosco in 1882 asking for the establishment of a college in the outskirts of Barcelona, ​​which later was founded in Sarrià. Two years later she founded a work for the FMA. In 1886, after a pressing invitation from her, Don Bosco went to Spain and was received by her with great attention.  It was then the turn of the College of St Dorothy. When they were buying the house they were short 7,000 pesetas - the sum that she had decided to keep for her old age. But she offered it saying: "God wants me to be really poor: I will be."

On Good Friday of 1891 she contracted pneumonia which led to her death within a week. Her mortal remains rest at the Shrine of Mary Help of Christians in Sarria. She was declared Venerable on 9 June 1983.

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ANS - “Agenzia iNfo Salesiana” is a on-line almost daily publication, the communication agency of the Salesian Congregation enrolled in the Press Register of the Tibunal of Rome as n 153/2007.

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