Blessed Alexandrina Maria da Costa

Lonely in the Tabernacle (1904 - 1955)

Feastday: October 13

"Keep me company in the Most Blessed Sacrament. I stay in the Tabernacle night and day, waiting to bestow My graces on all who visit Me. But so few come. I feel so forsaken, lonely and offended ..." , Jesus tells Alexandrina Maria da Costa.

"I don't believe any of this nonsense, I don't understand that Dr. Araujo is being cheated like that. I'm taking over the investigation," concludes Dr. Alvaro. Alexandrina spent three weeks in isolation in the hospital of Oporto, Portugal, claiming to live on the Eucharist alone. As a fourteen-year-old girl, she had jumped out of the window to escape a rape that damaged her spinal cord. She can still drag herself to church until she is nineteen, from then on she is paralyzed and can no longer do anything. At first she had prayed a lot for healing; she had promised the Lord all kinds of things if she got well, but He chose otherwise.

Jesus appears and allows Alexandrina to pity Him, especially on Fridays. When she is 38 years old, He wants to prove to the world the power of the Eucharist. From then on she only consumes the Eucharist and nothing else. The bishop, who cares little about the case, asks her to be examined, and she agrees with pain in her heart on the condition that she may receive Communion every day and her sister may accompany her. In the hospital it turns out that he does not have access at all.

Dr. Araujo puts Alexandrina dry. Only sisters are allowed access, who have to eat tasty meals in front of Alexandrina. "Of course she is allowed to do some", they say, and "she must not place too much faith in the ecstasies, because the Lord does not work that way". After three weeks, Dr. Araujo softens the regime and sister Deolinda is also admitted again.

One of the sisters transfers the event to Dr. Alvaro, who takes over. He extends the stay to forty days. After weeks of complete isolation, he admits that he cannot provide a scientific explanation. Doctor Araujo promises to visit Alexandrina at home in Balasar, "not as a doctor spy, but as a friend who values ​​you."

Alexandrina died on October 13, 1955, aged 51. On her tombstone is inscribed, "Sinners, if the dust of my body can save you, walk on it, kick it around until it disappears. But never sin again, offend Jesus no more ... Don't risk Jesus forever. because He is so good.

Pope John Paul II beatified Alexandrina Maria da Costa on April 25, 2004.

Author: Michaël As

Source credit:

With the permission of the editors, I have been allowed to take this article from the "Katholiek Nieuwsblad" of October 7, 2005, for which my thanks.

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