The Venerable Sister Rita Amada de Jesus (1848-1913) was beatified today in her native diocese of Viseu, Portugal. Living in the 1800s, when Masonic governments persecuted the Church and forbade religious institutes to accept new novices, this "Apostle of the Rosary" founded the Institute of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, a community dedicated to teaching poor children, and began to operate schools in spite of government harassment.
In 1910, intensified pressure from the government forced religious institutes to operate underground and led Rita Amada to send sisters to South America, giving her community the missionary dimension she had long desired.
