María Ascensión Nicol y Goñi, O.P., (14 March 1868 – 24 February 1940) was a

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

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of the

Third Order of St. Dominic The Third Order of Saint Dominic (; abbreviated TOP), also referred to as the Lay Fraternities of Saint Dominic or Lay Dominicans since 1972, is a Roman Catholic, Catholic third order which is part of the Dominican Order. As members of the Order ...

. She co-founded and was the first Prioress General of the Congregation of Dominican Missionary Sisters of the Rosary, which she helped to found in

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Life

Background

She was born Florentina Nicol y Goñi on 14 March 1868 in

Tafalla Tafalla is a town and municipality located in the province and autonomous community of Navarre, northern Spain. Tafalla lies 30 km south of Pamplona, in the valley of the Zidacos river, which is a tributary of the Aragón. The population in Janua ...

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, the youngest of the four daughters of Juan Nicol y Zalduendo, a shopkeeper specializing in farming items, and of Águeda Goñi y Vidal, who died in 1872. As a child, she had many duties, including helping her family with the household chores. In 1878 a cousin of her father, who was a

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nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service and contemplation, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 5 ...

, offered to educate his middle two daughters at the boarding school of her monastery, the oldest having already married. Agreeing, he sent the girls to study. They later entered the monastic community themselves as Carmelite nuns. In December 1881 Nicol was enrolled by her father at the boarding school of the Beaterio (Convent) of Santa Rosa in

Huesca Huesca (; ) is a city in north-eastern Spain, within the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Aragon between 1096 and 1118. It is also the capital of the Spanish Huesca (province), ...

, a religious community of cloistered Sisters of the

, which was considered a prestigious school in the region. It was there that she was able to experience for herself the

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, which raised questions in her mind about her future. Her father and stepmother withdrew her from the school in February 1883, considering that she had received sufficient education for a female. During that time, however, she had felt called to join the Dominican Sisters who had taught her, but she returned home to reflect on her choices. By the following October Nicol had received the permission of her father to enter the convent. He then took her back to Huesca, where they visited her two sisters who were Carmelite nuns, after which she entered the

novitiate The novitiate, also called the noviciate, is the period of training and preparation that a Christian ''novice'' (or ''prospective'') monastic, apostolic, or member of a religious order undergoes prior to taking vows in order to discern whether ...

of the beaterio. In 1886 she professed

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, taking the

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of Mary Ascension of the Sacred Heart. She then became a teacher at that school and served in that capacity for the next 27 years. Under the

anti-clerical Anti-clericalism is opposition to religious authority, typically in social or political matters. Historically, anti-clericalism in Christian traditions has been opposed to the influence of Catholicism. Anti-clericalism is related to secularism, ...

laws promulgated in the early 20th century, however, the Spanish government took over the school and expelled the Sisters in 1913. Deprived of their traditional ministry, the Sisters decided to act on a proposal they had long considered, namely,

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

service, about which they had learned from the periodicals issued by various missionary congregations. They wrote to