On Saturday, 24 September 2022, an in-presence and also live streamed event was held in the St. Paul House at the Generalate to commemorate the Centenary of the first religious profession of Sr. Thecla Merlo and the first group of Daughters of St. Paul (22 July 1922). Many members of the Pauline Family participated in the encounter.
The theme, Thecla Merlo: Mystic and Apostle, was presented with competence and originality by Sr Ana Paula Ramalho, fsp, who recounted the important stages of the life of the Prima Maestra Thecla according to the stages of bread preparation: wheat (her youth); first fruits (her first profession and the time of congregational expansion); the grinding of grain (internal and external problems); bread making and baking (obscurity and confirmation of her vocation), broken bread (the offering of her life for the holiness of her daughters).
Sr. Ana’s talk was followed by the testimonies of some members of the Pauline Family who had known Prima Maestra personally. A common thread running through these contributions was that Thecla Merlo had always cultivated a profound relationship with God, who had shaped her into a woman of great humanity and apostolic action.
The event concluded with input on the part of Fr. Dominic Soliman, the previous postulator general of the Pauline Family and current Superior General of the SSP, the Juniors of the FSP course of perfection, and a communal intercessory prayer to obtain the beatification of Prima Maestra Thecla.
The full event is posted on the FSPSicom Youtube channel.
