Catholic mystic and Marian visionary. Born in Barrancas, Monagas, Venezuela, near the Oronoco River, the daughter of Aniceto and Maria Filumena Medrano. Married Geo Bianchini, with whom she had six daughters and one son.
Believers hold that, from her youth, she lived a life of virtue and fidelity to God and received the gifts of supernatural knowledge, healing, visions, discernment of spirits, locution, ecstasy, levitation, the odor of sanctity, the stigmata, and the ability to read the hearts of others. Witnesses claim to have seen her levitating during mass and engaging in bilocation.
While in her youth Maria Esperanza considered becoming a nun, she said that it was revealed to her in a vision of St. John Bosco on October 3, 1954 that her calling was to the married life. The saint also told her she would first encounter her spouse on November 1, 1955, which she reportedly did. Her legend also recounts that Maria received the spiritual direction and mantle of Saint Padre Pio, and received in the presence of her husband a bilocated visitation from the saint the day before he died.
Maria Esperanza claimed to have first seen an apparition of Mary in 1976, but she became a world-renowned figure after Mary reportedly appeared to her and 150 others at a farm at Finca Betania in Venezuela on March 25, 1984. Mary is said to have appeared as “Mary, Virgin and Mother, Reconciler of all Peoples and Nations.” The apparition was deemed valid by Bishop Pio Bello Ricardo of Los Teques, Venezuela, in 1987.
In 1995 she was granted the “Cecilio Acosta” award in Caracas, Venezuela, to acknowledge her contribution as an example and inspiration, and as a promoter of faith and Christian values in the Women’s International Year.
In 1979, Maria Esperanza and her husband created the Betania Foundation, a lay movement designed to evangelize, educate and develop the well-being of society and family life and promote social justice. Since her death in 2004, her family has continued the mission of the foundation.
On January 31, 2010, in the (Catholic) Cathedral of St Francis of Assisi in Metuchen, New Jersey, the case for the beatification and canonization of Maria Esperanza was opened by the Bishop Paul Bootkoski of the Diocese of Metuchen. This act gave her the officially sanctioned title "Servant of God". While Maria Esperanza's Marian apparitions were approved at the local level by the bishop, they have not yet been approved by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which has only approved 12 apparitions to date.
Believers hold that, from her youth, she lived a life of virtue and fidelity to God and received the gifts of supernatural knowledge, healing, visions, discernment of spirits, locution, ecstasy, levitation, the odor of sanctity, the stigmata, and the ability to read the hearts of others. Witnesses claim to have seen her levitating during mass and engaging in bilocation.
While in her youth Maria Esperanza considered becoming a nun, she said that it was revealed to her in a vision of St. John Bosco on October 3, 1954 that her calling was to the married life. The saint also told her she would first encounter her spouse on November 1, 1955, which she reportedly did. Her legend also recounts that Maria received the spiritual direction and mantle of Saint Padre Pio, and received in the presence of her husband a bilocated visitation from the saint the day before he died.
Maria Esperanza claimed to have first seen an apparition of Mary in 1976, but she became a world-renowned figure after Mary reportedly appeared to her and 150 others at a farm at Finca Betania in Venezuela on March 25, 1984. Mary is said to have appeared as “Mary, Virgin and Mother, Reconciler of all Peoples and Nations.” The apparition was deemed valid by Bishop Pio Bello Ricardo of Los Teques, Venezuela, in 1987.
In 1995 she was granted the “Cecilio Acosta” award in Caracas, Venezuela, to acknowledge her contribution as an example and inspiration, and as a promoter of faith and Christian values in the Women’s International Year.
In 1979, Maria Esperanza and her husband created the Betania Foundation, a lay movement designed to evangelize, educate and develop the well-being of society and family life and promote social justice. Since her death in 2004, her family has continued the mission of the foundation.
On January 31, 2010, in the (Catholic) Cathedral of St Francis of Assisi in Metuchen, New Jersey, the case for the beatification and canonization of Maria Esperanza was opened by the Bishop Paul Bootkoski of the Diocese of Metuchen. This act gave her the officially sanctioned title "Servant of God". While Maria Esperanza's Marian apparitions were approved at the local level by the bishop, they have not yet been approved by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which has only approved 12 apparitions to date.
Catholic mystic and Marian visionary. Born in Barrancas, Monagas, Venezuela, near the Oronoco River, the daughter of Aniceto and Maria Filumena Medrano. Married Geo Bianchini, with whom she had six daughters and one son.
Believers hold that, from her youth, she lived a life of virtue and fidelity to God and received the gifts of supernatural knowledge, healing, visions, discernment of spirits, locution, ecstasy, levitation, the odor of sanctity, the stigmata, and the ability to read the hearts of others. Witnesses claim to have seen her levitating during mass and engaging in bilocation.
While in her youth Maria Esperanza considered becoming a nun, she said that it was revealed to her in a vision of St. John Bosco on October 3, 1954 that her calling was to the married life. The saint also told her she would first encounter her spouse on November 1, 1955, which she reportedly did. Her legend also recounts that Maria received the spiritual direction and mantle of Saint Padre Pio, and received in the presence of her husband a bilocated visitation from the saint the day before he died.
Maria Esperanza claimed to have first seen an apparition of Mary in 1976, but she became a world-renowned figure after Mary reportedly appeared to her and 150 others at a farm at Finca Betania in Venezuela on March 25, 1984. Mary is said to have appeared as “Mary, Virgin and Mother, Reconciler of all Peoples and Nations.” The apparition was deemed valid by Bishop Pio Bello Ricardo of Los Teques, Venezuela, in 1987.
In 1995 she was granted the “Cecilio Acosta” award in Caracas, Venezuela, to acknowledge her contribution as an example and inspiration, and as a promoter of faith and Christian values in the Women’s International Year.
In 1979, Maria Esperanza and her husband created the Betania Foundation, a lay movement designed to evangelize, educate and develop the well-being of society and family life and promote social justice. Since her death in 2004, her family has continued the mission of the foundation.
On January 31, 2010, in the (Catholic) Cathedral of St Francis of Assisi in Metuchen, New Jersey, the case for the beatification and canonization of Maria Esperanza was opened by the Bishop Paul Bootkoski of the Diocese of Metuchen. This act gave her the officially sanctioned title "Servant of God". While Maria Esperanza's Marian apparitions were approved at the local level by the bishop, they have not yet been approved by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which has only approved 12 apparitions to date.
Believers hold that, from her youth, she lived a life of virtue and fidelity to God and received the gifts of supernatural knowledge, healing, visions, discernment of spirits, locution, ecstasy, levitation, the odor of sanctity, the stigmata, and the ability to read the hearts of others. Witnesses claim to have seen her levitating during mass and engaging in bilocation.
While in her youth Maria Esperanza considered becoming a nun, she said that it was revealed to her in a vision of St. John Bosco on October 3, 1954 that her calling was to the married life. The saint also told her she would first encounter her spouse on November 1, 1955, which she reportedly did. Her legend also recounts that Maria received the spiritual direction and mantle of Saint Padre Pio, and received in the presence of her husband a bilocated visitation from the saint the day before he died.
Maria Esperanza claimed to have first seen an apparition of Mary in 1976, but she became a world-renowned figure after Mary reportedly appeared to her and 150 others at a farm at Finca Betania in Venezuela on March 25, 1984. Mary is said to have appeared as “Mary, Virgin and Mother, Reconciler of all Peoples and Nations.” The apparition was deemed valid by Bishop Pio Bello Ricardo of Los Teques, Venezuela, in 1987.
In 1995 she was granted the “Cecilio Acosta” award in Caracas, Venezuela, to acknowledge her contribution as an example and inspiration, and as a promoter of faith and Christian values in the Women’s International Year.
In 1979, Maria Esperanza and her husband created the Betania Foundation, a lay movement designed to evangelize, educate and develop the well-being of society and family life and promote social justice. Since her death in 2004, her family has continued the mission of the foundation.
On January 31, 2010, in the (Catholic) Cathedral of St Francis of Assisi in Metuchen, New Jersey, the case for the beatification and canonization of Maria Esperanza was opened by the Bishop Paul Bootkoski of the Diocese of Metuchen. This act gave her the officially sanctioned title "Servant of God". While Maria Esperanza's Marian apparitions were approved at the local level by the bishop, they have not yet been approved by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which has only approved 12 apparitions to date.
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