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She was born in Borreiros (Pontevedra) on May 1, 1908.
She died in Borreiros (Pontevedra) on June 28, 1992.
Daughter of Celestino Fernández Pereira and Dolores Pereira; she is the first of seven siblings.
Feeling called by the Lord to religious life, she began her religious life in the Dominican Convent of Belvis (Santiago de Compostela) in 1927.
“On the day of the Holy Kings in 1937, he perceived a motion of the Spirit to found a Religious Congregation that, following in the footsteps of the first Christians, would dedicate itself to evangelizing the poor.
His health was delicate. With great fortitude and willpower she overcame the monastic life, which was very rigorous at that time, although her weakened organism suffered and became ill.
Due to a serious stomach ailment and by medical prescription, she was to undergo surgery. The doctors recommended that he should recuperate with his family, so he left the monastery. She felt within herself a certainty that she would never return to her beloved convent of Belvis.
The Lord would perform his work “The Lord was leading me”.
On April 11, 1940, she unexpectedly recovered her health and this grace of the Lord was the sign to begin the foundation of the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of Mary Mediatrix.
Mother Rosary had an open and spontaneous character, a great capacity for conviction and an easy rapport with people.
A woman of deep faith in God, charismatic and daring, with a great love for the Virgin Mary in her invocation as “Mediatrix”, her enterprising spirit leads her to “always be in an attitude of search”, living intensely with tenacity and fidelity, the risk for all that she believes in and loves. “GOD HAS HIS WAYS AND TIMES FOR HIS WORKS. LET US PUT EVERYTHING IN THE HANDS OF THE LORD”.
(M. Rosario).
Mother Rosary lived prophetism with all its consequences, she was chosen by God for a specific mission within the Church, she assumed with all humility her human incapacities, but she knew how to be faithful to the end to the mission entrusted to her.
In the depths of her being, she never ceased to live the spirit of the Dominican Third Order and to long for that home that was for her, for years, the convent of the Dominican Mothers of Belvis.
His passage through the world “was a continuous exodus”; a constant departure without knowing for sure where his search ended.
He had a deep sensitivity to grasp the signs of the times and a great vision of the future, which allowed him to live both realities at the same time, combining his dreaming spirit with real life.
Since those years, she clearly sensed the need to involve the laity in the activities of the religious and, in the early days, she tried to do so by creating a school in which she put in charge two young teachers, who taught classes in the Convent’s school.
His remains rest in the crypt of the chapel of Piedralaves as he wished.
Born in Argame (Morcín), Asturias. May 15, 1888.
He died in Piedralaves (Avila) on June 27, 1977.
Son of Vicente González Vigil and Teresa Fernández;
He entered the order of preachers in Padrón (Galicia) in 1903.
He was ordained to the priesthood on January 6, 1912. He was a professor at the school of Santo Domingo in Oviedo and of moral theology at the Seminary of Oviedo.
In June 1934 he was appointed Provincial of the Province of Spain, being the first Provincial to visit the missions of South America.
In 1938 he visited the convent of Belvis in (Santiago de Compostela), of the cloistered Dominican Mothers; there he met Mother Rosario who asked for his help as spiritual director, from that moment on his life was definitively linked to the incipient foundation of the Missionaries of Mary Mediatrix.
From the different places where he served in the Order of Preachers he always accompanied us, he promoted all the canonical procedures of the foundation, he was always a great spiritual and human support.
His peace and hope, as well as his enthusiasm and sense of humor, instilled the spirit we needed during the difficult times the Foundation went through.
A man of strong character, he was calm and peaceful, the result of fighting battles against the harshness of his temperament; he lived in harmony with all the things of nature, with the same ease and spontaneity as he did with those of God; he was big-hearted, simple, prudent, welcoming, with great confidence in the Lord and in the people whom he always excused.
A man of deep faith and intense prayer. He had the privilege of reaching the spiritual summit of his life here on earth without detaching himself from the problems and sufferings of the human condition. Although he left his homeland when he was only a boy of ten years old to enter the Dominican Fathers’ convent in Padrón, Father Esteban González Vigil kept deep in his heart and soul those first values that were instilled in him in the bosom of his family, he was a person close to everyone and a friend of the humble and simple.
He was the man of reconciliation and forgiveness as the fruit of that permanent dialogue with the world “of the divine and of nature”. He knew how to live until the end of his life faithful to his principles of “loving everyone without exception” by living his priestly consecration and communion with the spirit of his Dominican Order.
The Lord granted us the grace of having him with us for the last fifteen years of his life.
He received all the decrees of approval of the Congregation with joy and gratitude to the Lord.
Patient in his illness, he longed for the definitive encounter with God. He received the anointing of the sick with true piety and joy, expressing after a while: “it doesn’t come, it doesn’t take me” with joviality and humor. His life and death bear witness to his intimate union with the Lord.
He was a great support to the Foundress, a father to her daughters, and devoted most of his life to the Congregation.
Her remains rest in the crypt of the chapel of Piedralaves as was the will of Mother Rosario.
