Maria Berenice Hencker

On May 14, 1943, with the authorization of her superior and the Archbishop of Medellín, Msgr. Joaquín García Benítez, she founded the Congregation of the Little Sisters of the Annunciation. After a stay in France in Tours in 1946, she returned to Colombia for health reasons. In 1953, she was officially transferred to her new institute, of which she became the first Superior General. She also founded the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Jesus and Mary in 1957 for young women of color, and the Clerical Religious Institute of the Missionaries of the Annunciation in 1965.

After stepping down from the leadership of her congregation in 1967 due to serious health problems, Mother Maria Berenice spent the last fourteen years of her life bedridden by a painful illness. She passed away peacefully in Medellín on July 25, 1993. Her reputation for holiness led to the opening of her diocesan process in 2002. On February 12, 2019, Pope Francis recognized the heroic nature of her virtues, declaring her Venerable.

On October 13, 2021, Pope Francis approved a miracle attributed to her intercession: the scientifically inexplicable healing in 2004 of a young man suffering from a serious degenerative disease (progressive pandysautonomia with multi-organ failure). The solemn beatification ceremony was celebrated on October 29, 2022, in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Medellín, presided over by Cardinal Marcello Semeraro on behalf of Pope Francis.

The spirituality of Blessed Maria Berenice Hencker is centered on the mystery of the Annunciation and the humility of the Virgin Mary. Her love for the poor guides all her actions. Today, her legacy is perpetuated through the three institutes she founded, present in about fifteen countries around the world, notably in Colombia, Spain, Italy, the United States, the Philippines, and Ivory Coast.