Carmen Sallés and Barangueras born on April 9, 1848, in Vic, Spain. His parents were called José Sallés y Vall and Francisca Barangueras y de Planell. They gave him a solid Christian formation, whose characteristic note was a filial love for the Virgin Mary. Through his father's line he inherited a sense of honesty and responsibility at work, a love of justice, together with a deep sensitivity mixed with tenderness, affection and closeness. Through her maternal line, she inherited a strong religious sense to see God in life, who cares for his creatures with provident love. From her he learned to always seek the will of God, to transcend life and at the same time to be the architect of peace and reconciliation between her brothers.

She was the second of ten siblings. The first years of her life were full of sacrifice, a life of austerity and renunciation. They were difficult times of social upheaval, where hunger and economic hardship went hand in hand. In her large family, she saw how her parents sacrificed themselves to give an education and a culture to her children. In the middle of the industrial revolution, her father had to look for a livelihood, and led the family to Manresa. Her parents took her to the Colegio de la Compañía de María and there she learned prayers that remained engraved in her mind and her traditions that marked her later life.

When she was 6 years old, the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception was promulgated on December 8, 1854. Carmeta lived this event intensely, with the entire population. A key Marian year in his life was 1858. On February 11 the Virgin appeared in Lourdes to Bernadette and brought confirmation on her lips of the defined dogma. This year the family pilgrimage to Montserrat took place and it was also that of his First Communion, at which time he told Jesus that it would be all for Him. He already pointed to the religious vocation and in Montserrat he left that determination at Maria's feet. Thus, from that moment on, his life was consecrated to the Lord through Mary.

At a time when women passed from paternal guardianship to that of the husband, she was promised in marriage to a young man from Manresa, which meant for her the need to fight to follow the path that had been traced. She managed to break her engagement by entering the novitiate of the Adorers, who were dedicated to the recovery of marginalized women, due to delinquency or prostitution. Her restlessness and her ability to reason led her to wonder what those women would have been like if society had given them other opportunities. She then decided to dedicate her life to the formation of women, so that she could occupy her rightful place in society, in any social class in which she found herself.

To do this, she went to a Congregation of Religious, dedicated to the teaching and education of women: the Dominicas de la Anunciata, founded by Fr. Coll, who received her in the Novitiate. For 22 years she dedicated herself to education in various places, she ran a little school so that the children of working women were not on the streets; In Barcelona he ran a school dedicated to the middle class, and he managed to open night classes for 300 workers, helped by the day shift students. He strove to increase female culture and educate the young women in a deep piety, well-founded, without feeling, that anticipated the most common mentality of their time, so that everyone could understand that women had to go beyond the first letters and the "labors of their sex ”.

Among other internal problems, she was accused of wanting to fill the woman's head with vanity. In 1889, Carmen began a deep search process. She prayed, consulted and listened to the voice of the Holy Spirit that spoke to her heart and also because of the circumstances in which she lived. The strong problems occurred at the end of 1891 and the first months of 1892. The truth is that she never wanted to definitively leave the Dominican Congregation, but to unfold a branch of this same tree. She wanted to stay in her house, to continue teaching there. But she was denied, and she was forced to start a new path. Accompanied by three sisters -Candelaria Boleda, Remedios Pujol, Emilia Horta- she started a new Congregation in the Church, called at first: Concepcionistas de Santo Domingo (today: Concepcionistas Misiones de la Enseñanza).

In a persevering but quiet search, because she trusts in the Lord more than in herself, Carmen takes a trip to Madrid. Divine Providence awaits her there. The firm and serene word of Don Celestino Pazos, belonging to the Cabildo de Zamora, helps him to seek the will of God. Carmen He delivers his project to the Virgen del Buen Consejo, located in the chapel of the Collegiate Church of San Isidro. After praying, she says to her companions: “It is God's will. Let's go to Burgos. We will work there and fight with whatever comes our way ”.

October 15, 1892, feast of Saint Teresa of Jesus, Carmen arrives in Burgos, with the three companions: Candelaria Boleda, Emilia Horta and Remedios Pujals. There he found a great protector in the person of the Archbishop, D. Manuel Gómez-Salazar and Lucio Villegas, who, on December 7 of the same year, granted Diocesan approval to the nascent Congregation and authorized the opening of the first Conceptionist college. On April 16, 1893, the Diocesan approval of the Constitutions was obtained and Carmen Sallés received the appointment of Superior General. On February 29, 1908, Carmen Sallés requested the approval of the Institute from the Holy Father. And on September 19 of the same year he received the Praise Decree, granted by Saint Pius X.

"As long as there are young people to educate
and values ​​to transmit,
difficulties do not count "

January 26, 2022

From the first moment she devoted herself to adequately preparing the future religious teachers. At a time when the laws did not require the title of teacher to teach in private schools of the Church, she put the nuns to study the career of Teaching and Piano and introduced them to the mastery of the French language. The University was going to take a few more years to open its doors to women. But two years after the Institute was founded, her students were studying to become teachers. She raised education as a comprehensive and balanced project. The girl, the young woman, had to harmoniously develop her intelligence and her heart. She spent her life in the service of educating children and youth. She spent all her energies on found up to 13 "Houses of Mary Immaculate", as they liked to call their Communities and Colleges. These were: Burgos, Segovia, El Escorial, Madrid, Pozoblanco, Almadén, Valdepeñas, Manzanares, Santa Cruz de Mudela, Murchante, Barajas de Melo, Arroyo del Puerco (today de la Luz), Santa Cruz de la Zarza.

He will remain faithful to his religious vocation dedicated to teaching. In 19 years of work, he will found 13 houses and will develop a broad apostolate in schools in various cities and towns in Spain. The figure of a woman of great character and great sweetness will emerge, who was able to overcome many difficulties throughout her founding itinerary. Her unshakable faith and her ardent charity go hand in hand with a great sensitivity for the Christian formation of women, at a time when secular and anticlerical pressures arose. M. Carmen also manifests a great love for the poorest girls: indeed, in all of her foundations initiatives to favor the poorest girls arise together. The testimonies also offer proof of the density of her inner life and the delicacy of her conscience regarding past painful experiences: you will never hear her lament or speak ill of anyone or justify her own attitudes” (Positio). She also initiated the previous steps to take his work to Italy and Brazil.

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The devotion to Santa Carmen Sallés is spreading in a providential way throughout the world.

• • • • He died in Madrid, at the age of 63, on July 25, 1911, having spent and spent his life for God and the brothers.
      • December 8, 1954, Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and Marian Year, H.H. Pius II definitively approved the Congregation, with its current name: Missionary Conceptionists of Teaching.
      • On March 15, 1998,H.H. John Paul II beatified her, setting the date of her liturgical commemoration on December 6.
      • On October 21, 2012, H.H. Benedict XVI canonized her.Mother Carmen continues her work in the Church through the Missionary Teaching Conceptionists.

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January 26, 2022

OTHER DATES OF INTEREST

1. Birth of Mother Carmen, in Vic on April 9, 1848

2. Baptism in Vic on April 11, 1848

3. He began to go to the Colegio de las RR de la Enseñanza 1855

4. He made his 1st Communion in Manresa at the age of 10 on April 18 1858

5. Entered Religious in the Adorers 1869

6. He took the habit on August 26, 1869 (Carmelite of Jesus)

7. He left the Novitiate on November 15, 1870

8. He entered the Dominicans of Fr. Coll on May 8, 1871

9. He took the habit on August 7, 1871 (sent to Tortella)

10. Admission to the profession on July 15, 1872

11. His mother passed away (stroke) on September 13, 1873

12. Father Collo died on April 2, 1875

13. You wore the Dominican habit on September 24, 1875

14. She was named Superior and Director of Barcelona on April 23, 1883

15. He left the Dominican Republic on February 22, 1892

16. Arrives in Burgos on October 15, 1892

17. She founds the Congregation in Burgos and is named Superior General for life

on December 7, 1892

18. They wear the blue and white habit on December 8, 1892

19. Approval of the Constitutions.

He professed the new Rule (2nd approval) on April 16, 1893

20. D. Manuel Gómez Salazar, his great protector, dies on June 13, 1893

21. Foundation of Segovia on April 8, 1894

22. Foundation of El Escorial on July 28, 1895

23. Foundation of Madrid (Rejas 1) October 1, 1897

24. Foundation of Pozoblanco, September 1, 1899

25. Change of House in Madrid, to S. Vicente, January 31 1901

26. Foundation of Almaden, on November 27, 1902

27. Valdepeñas Foundation on May 1st 1903

28. Murchante Foundation (Navarra) June 29, 1904

29. Transfer in Madrid to 12 Calle Mendizábal, nº 13 on November 7, 1904

30. Foundation of Sta. Cross of Mudela, 2nd of July l905

31. Barajas de Melo Foundation, July 25, 1905

32. Foundation of Manzanares on November 5, 1906

33. Serious illness of the Mother in October 1907

34. Foundation of Arroyo de Puerco in November 1907

35. Decree of praise by Pope S. Pius X on September 19, 1908

36. The plot on calle de la Princesa is acquired 1909

37. Transfer to Calle de la Princesa on November 15 1909

38. Foundation in Sta. Cruz de la Zarza, April 15, 1910

39. Death of the Mother Foundress on July 25 1911

40. Transfer of the remains of the Mother Foundress, from the Sacramental of San Justo,

to the College of Calle de la Princesa, in the month of June 1949

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January 26, 2022

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