“That seven of December was like the sudden emergence of a thriving spring that totally filled my life with light and put a new color in everything around me. (…)”
— Founder of The Work of the Church
Mother Trinidad was born in Dos Hermanas (Seville) on February 10th, 1929.
She spent her first seventeen years living a simple and unseen life as a good youngster in the bosom of a well-to-do and godly Christian family. Yet God, in His unfathomable designs, powerfully transformed that simple life of young Trinidad. As of this early age, great gifts from God would mark the different stages of her existence in order to fulfil the mission He wanted to entrust to her in the Church. On 7 December 1946, the eve of the feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, God burst into the life of that simple, open, and joyful young girl, the youngest of four siblings. She consecrated herself immediately, totally and definitively to God. From then on, during her long periods of prayer before the tabernacle in the parish church of St Mary Magdalene in her village, she lived a loving and warm relationship with the Lord, sensing his solitude and living to be his rest and refreshment. She describes it herself as follows:
«That seven of December was like the sudden emergence of a thriving spring that totally filled my life with light and put a new color in everything around me. Infinite Love stood before me and, as it were, said to me: Do you need to love and to be loved? I am Infinite Love! Is your heart thirsting for happiness? I am Happiness, Beauty, Power, eternal Perfection…! And from that day on, my soul lives in the fullness of all its desires, infinitely overwhelmed in its desire to be and to possess».
In the Parish Church of Saint Mary Magdalene, on the day of the Immaculate Conception, with these words she voiced her total surrender to God as she stood before the statue of Our Lady: “I will be forever Yours”. Words which will remain as a permanent seal marking her first and definitive steps.
She spent many hours alongside Jesus in the Eucharist, as many as she was allowed by her job in the family shoe shop, and such unique encounters with Jesus made Him become her sole Teacher. Due to family reasons, she moved to Madrid in 1955. Added now to her intimacy with Jesus are some prophetic lights that she received at that time, which made her glimpse her own future being “at the front of a great Work”.
In 1955, at the age of 26, she moved to Madrid to look after her elder brother Francisco. From 18 March 1959, in the house where she lived on Calle Cadarso, God flooded her soul with light. He draws her into his very bosom, revealing to her the mystery of his Trinitarian life and his action towards mankind, making her a witness to the whole dogma of the Church. And at the same time, impelling her with an irresistible force: “Go and tell it…! This is for everyone…!”, “All for John XXIII…!”, “The Council is coming for this.” From that moment on, her soul was marked by a profound vocation, with a great mission within the Church. In the text she wrote herself on 30 April 1960, she describes what happened to her as follows:
God introduced me (…) on March 18th, 1959, in a very profound and unimaginable way, into the fathomless depth of the Mystery of His life (…) for me to contemplate that Sancta Sanctorum of the adorable Trinity, veiled and hidden (…) and there I was introduced without being able to understand how I could have entered there; and much less could I understand how, after coming out, I have continued to live for so many years even after that (…). Solely to help the Church! solely for this (…) Whom my poor and trembling soul had to manifest (…) being only the Echo, the tiny, frightened and stammering Echo of the People of God.
Pope Saint John Paul II, in the Decree of Approbation of Pontifical Right, wanted to single out that very day, March 18th, 1959, as the beginning of The Work of The Church, even though Mother Trinidad herself was not thinking about any foundation at that time. Yet the Work that the Lord wanted to do through her in the Church had indeed already begun with such magnificent and most special workings of the Lord in her soul, aimed at revealing the mystery of the Church, strengthening the life of faith and rekindling love for the Church in many hearts.
Mother Trinidad feels deeply moved as she receives the blessing of the Holy Father Saint John Paul II, who wanted to go to her own house and visit her while she was sick in bed. (December, 15th 1996).
On Pentecost in 1963, the Lord inspired Mother Trinidad to found The Work of the Church. She established more than 40 houses for her Work both at home and abroad, with the aim of communicating to everyone what God had been burning into her soul. From 1993 onwards, she took up residence in Rome. On Wednesday 28 July 2021, Mother Trinidad de la Santa Madre Iglesia, founder and President of The Work of the Church, an institution of pontifical right, passed away in Rome.
«Go and tell it, this is for everyone!»
In 1976 she gave a simple explanation of the consequences she had experienced after having been introduced into God’s Bosom. Only in this way can it be explained that, despite barely being able to read or write and never having read a book on Catholic theology, she wrote and published several books, in addition to leaving behind more than a thousand talks recorded in audio and video, together with countless unpublished writings. All of this constitutes a precious heritage for deepening one’s life of faith, Christian spirituality, and the mystery of the Church.
Mother Trinidad feels deeply moved as she receives the blessing of the Holy Father Saint John Paul II, who wanted to go to her own house and visit her while she was sick in bed. (December, 15th 1996).
On Wednesday 28 July 2021, Mother Trinidad de la Santa Madre Iglesia, founder and President of The Work of the Church, an institution of pontifical right, passed away in Rome.
Beloved soul, help me help the Church by showing Her as She is and God willed to be His divine mind. (Extract)
Time: 4 minutes.
Mother Trinidad: One life, one mission, one vocation that God alone fully knows, and which she describes with these words:
«I was born for the Church, solely for this, God created me in His infinite design so that I might be ‘The Echo of the Church of mine,’ and might sing Her song and manifest Her riches.
I was born to be Church, to be in the midst of mankind a living expression of Her profound reality, of Her infinite song and of Her heart-rending tragedy […]».
(From the writing “I was born for the Church” – Letter No. 20)