Rome, Italy: Our brother, Blessed Francisco Coll y Guitart, beatified by His Holiness Pope John Paul II on the 29th of April, 1979 will be canonized by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI this coming 11th of October. He is the founder of the Congregation of the Dominican Sisters of the Anunciata.

 

Father Francisco Coll was born in Spain on 1812. He had his initial formation at the age of ten (10) in the Seminary of the Diocese of Vich (Barcelona). The ordinary precarious economic situation and the limitations this implied formed and shaped his very person: spirit and body, endowing him with an extraordinary sense of asceticism which he lived throughout his life. When he finished his studies in Philosophy in the Seminary, at the autumn of 1830, he opted to ask the Dominican habit in the Convent of the City of Gerona; a convent which was founded only about 35 years after the death of Saint Dominic and which possessed a good team of Formators and Masters in Sacred Theology. It was a convent which maintained itself more strongly in the line of Dominican Tradition. According to the contemporaries of Fr. Coll who stayed with him in the convent for some years,  Fr. Coll manifested constantly his being a man of God and notably exemplar in his life. It was in this convent where Fray Francisco Coll started his studies in theology where he had known the Summa of Saint Thomas. The habit to study as well as his preparation for Latin language and philosophical matters helped him assimilate a higher theological thinking which prepared him for his future dedication to preaching.

AN IMPOSED SECULARIZATION. DOMINICAN UNTIL DEATH.
Shortly after his ordination to the diaconate, when it was only a year more for his ordination to priesthood, he had to go through, as other many Spanish Religious,  a forced imposed secularization because of the liberal political revolution which invaded the convents and houses of the friars. The year 1835 is remembered always in Spain as the year of suppression of Religious Orders. In such a violent manner, Fray Francisco Coll was obliged to abandon the convent and go through the "dessert" of secularization changing himself into a "secularized  dominican". Despite the repressing civil laws which made the priestly ordination of Fr. Coll difficult, through the authorization of his provincial Superior, he was ordained priest, amidst all the risks this entailed, in the hands of a Bishop a former superior general of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy known as the Mercedarian Order.
He was a dominican until death and he fittingly bore such identity heroically. Only the Pope can dispense a solemn profession. Father Coll made his " solemn profession" in 1831, the Pope did not dispensed it  ahead of time nor did he offered dispensation, neither did  Fr. Coll ever  asked for it. He was a dominican although the overwhelming laws of religious freedom did not allow him to live his life materially in the convent nor was he allowed to wear the religious dominican habit, but in every aspect of his "being" and in all of his "doing", he vivified the grace of Charism of Saint Dominic de Guzman.

APOSTLE OF THE GOSPEL
Soon alter his ordination, he offered himself at the service of his Bishop and during a period of time he exercised his priestly ministry in the parishes of the Diocese. Moved by an irresistible force of an extraordinary vocation, he opted as a project of life to undertake a missionary task, being a Dominican apostle, he started to preach as a new apostle "the apostle of the modern times" - as it was written- like a new Dominic de Guzman or a new Vicente Ferrer. He was an itinerant missionary, like his Father Dominic. He did not receive any stipend whatsoever, neither did he receive monetary gifts for his preaching. He always preached as someone send by the bishop, he took part and was member of the apostolic community which demanded generous submission to study and to the proclamation of the Word. Before he directed his preaching to the faithful people he catered to the spiritual exercises of the priests in the region. He also preached to the cloistered nuns, those in prison, he visited the sick, he gave catechesis to the children… and he never omitted in any of his talks about the Virgin Mary which was a devotion he effectively promoted.
Many of the witnesses of distinguished contemporary clerics spoke about his apostolic ardor and his way of preaching. Bishop Guardiola said: " The one who does marvelous things is the good Father Coll and I don't know how to say it nor to please those who ask me about him. He welcomes the people for ten(10) hours listening to them and making general confession. May God grant us more apostolic men like Fr. Coll and God will return to us his peace which many of us  strongly need. And Saint Anthony Ma. Claret with whom he preached in many occasions spoke of him: "Where I preached, Fr. Coll can reap but where he preached, there is nothing left for me to harvest."
The Postulator, Fr. Vito T. Gomez, O.P, in an interview said: " to the Family of Saint Dominic, this brother, great for his humility and rich for his poverty, transmits a message very much appropriate to assume the beginning of the third millennium of Christian history.  His life shows that the ideal dominican can possibly be lived in fullness even when social circumstances are adverse. He manifested that it is possible to give generous service for the sake of  the Gospel even in extreme cases, of persecution, of threats, impediments and obstacles towards the precious gift of freedom, despite all the disturbances and prohibitions so that God can be served and announced. All of these were experienced by Fr. Coll, the future Saint in his own flesh, despite all those situations, some witnesses accordingly testified to this that he reached being a perfect imitator of his holy Father Dominic."

FOUNDER OF THE CONGREGATION OF DOMINICAN SISTERS OF THE ANUNCIATA
In 1856 he founded the Congregation, a result of the many years of his prayer, reflection and consultations: it can be possibly thought that since his seminary years he already fondled such dream. A dream which was gradually consolidating as he knew the problems of his society which he encountered during his mission travels.
He was worried and very much preoccupied of the country in matters of education and above all in the problem of teaching the "girls" who were considered clearly inferior than boys: " among men - according to  the report of a specialist - the instruction must be public and without limitations, but that of women must be private and domestic, limited only to acquire  the skills to do  household chores…"  This and other social and religious deficiencies which he gradually discovered, together with the fact that he was elected general director of the Third Order of Saint Dominic in the Catalan region, determined his decisive option to found a feminine dominican congregation.
There were many and serious difficulties he needed to overcome and most of it came from his own prelate which invited Fr. Coll, in more than one occasion to disperse them. Fr. Claret wrote therefore to a religious "the Church puts all the possible difficulties to impede many different religions. It only favors an increase of  religious men and women but not of  new religious Orders… I will not say that at this time it is absolutely prohibited but there are many difficulties one cannot avoid but lose interest in founding a congregation…"
The enormous trust in God, the audacity which characterizes Fr. Coll and the huge apostolic zeal motivated him to gather a group of young women who were already disposed to follow the call of Jesus… When Fr. Coll died in 1875 according to the Congregation, there were already 300 religious sisters and 50 communities established and dedicated fundamentally to Christian education of children particularly girls.
To his daughters he taught to be poor and simple; he inculcated to them that they may be adorers to the Father and servants to their fellow people, profoundly contemplative and generous evangelizers. He left them the legacy of the love of Christ, the Marian devotion and the practice of virtues especially of charity; an obligation to study and cultivate silence; self-giving to education of those who are mostly in need and preaching of the "holy doctrine" to all but especially to the children and the youth. He wanted that the Sisters would be illuminators of the society, proposing the dogma and Christian morals. And as such as "shining stars" they may indicate to all the way leading to God, fulfilling this with an ecclesial spirit, sharing one's mission with the secular or laity.


THE CONGREGATION OF THE ANUNCIATA IN ITS PRESENT TIME:
The Congregation is organized in six religious Provinces and in one Vicariate. The total number of its professed religious members are about 1, 039. They are  present in Europe, America, Africa and Asia.
"    Europe: Spain, Italy, France and Swiss.
"    South  América: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Perú, Paraguay, Uruguay,
"     Central América : Costa Rica, El Salvador,  Guatemala, Nicaragua, México.
"    África: Benin, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Rwanda.
"    Asia: Philippines

The Educative Mission, its principal apostolic activity, is considered as the more privileged means of evangelization.
In different Parish Activities they seek new forms of insertion and collaboration with the local Church, assuming ministries in consonance with their specific charism; the announcing of the Gospel.
The Mission Activity in countries of the third world or the developing countries where the sisters announce and share the faith. They work for justice, solidarity, peace and human rights, being evangelizers through "presence" and working to establish Christian communities at the same time offering the gift of the domincan charism to other people and cultures.
 Through the Activity of Health/ Sanitary and other works of charity, the Dominican Sisters of the Anunciata intend to sow joy, faith, hope and consolation among those in pain in the world. They live the gratuity of service to those who are mostly abandoned: the elderly, the sick, the despised, those incapacitated or having deficiencies, the minority of ethnic groups….
They try their best to discover, remaining faithful to the contemplative dimension of their life, the seeds of the Word present in different cultures, in those who are inserted and are signs of the times visible through real and deeper needs of humanity today, in order to offer the Incarnate Word.
Conscious of these challenges today as presented by the youth they shall journey with them together with those belonging to the University Residents, or dominican communities inserted in various ways:
-    Live and  show transparently the joy of following Jesús Christ
-    Having the Word of God as their center,
-    Providing for the youth spaces of welcoming shelter, of prayer and evangelization.
-    Offering spiritual legacy of the dominican charism with the conviction that the toil of Blessed Francisco Coll will continue to have and give meaning: to live and to announce the faith!