St.

Bonifacia Rodriguez de Castro

Date of birth: June 6, 1837 AD

Place of birth: Salamanca Spain

Death: August 9, 1905 AD

Bonifacia Rodríguez y Castro was a co-founder of the Religious Congregation of the Servants of St.
Joseph, which pioneered the "Nazareth workshop" as a new model for consecrated life and a means of
assisting poor and unemployed women.

She was baptized at the age of four days. She was one of six children born to the devout family of Joseph
Rodrguez Gutiérrez, a tailor, and Maria Natalia Jiménez Castro. At the age of 15, she began working in a
rope factory, performing hard labor for little pay. She developed a devotion to Mary Immaculate and
Saint Joseph as a devout young woman who attended daily Mass. She gathered a group of like-minded
friends for devotions in her home, and together they founded the Association of the Immaculate and
 Saint Joseph, more commonly known as the Josephine Congregation. On 10 January 1874, she co-
founded the Congregation of the Servants of Saint Joseph; their mission was to prevent impoverished
women from falling into lives of crime or abuse, drawing inspiration from the simple home in which
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph worked.

Bonifacia Rodriguez Castro, a cord maker from Salamanca, Spain, supported her widowed mother
through her work. Following that, she established a shop in their home. Each Sunday, Bonifacia used the
shop-room as a spiritual gathering place for young women seeking refuge from the immoral
entertainments to which they were exposed elsewhere. Placing themselves under Mary and Joseph's
patronage, Bonifacia and her friends founded the "Association of the Immaculate and Saint Joseph,"
which grew into a new religious congregation, the Servants of Saint Joseph, devoted to the spiritual
formation and protection of women factory workers. However, only eight years after co-founding the
congregation, Sister Bonifacia was wrongfully removed from the position of mother superior after a
faction of the nuns turned against her. She was granted permission by the bishop to establish a new
convent in Zamora, but the Salamanca community refused to reconcile with her.

Bonifacia, cordmaker, in her Zamora shop, elbow to elbow with other female workers, including girls,
young women, and adults.

— upholds the dignity of impoverished unemployed women by "protecting them from the danger of
being lost" (Institute's Decree of Establishment, January 7, 1874);

— in the manner of Nazareth, weaves the sanctification of work into prayer: "in this way, prayer will not
be a hindrance to your work, nor will work take away the recollection from your prayer" (Francisco
Butia, June 4, 1874, letter from Poyanne);

— weaves human relations of equality, fraternity, and respect throughout her work: "we should be all
for one another in the name of Jesus" (Bonifacia Rodriguez, first discourse, Salamanca, 1876).

Salamanca's mother house completely disregards Bonifacia and the founding of Zamora, leaving her
alone and marginalized, and, under the guidance of ecclesiastical superiors, modifies the Constitutions
of Butia in order to alter the Institute's objectives.

Leo XIII approves the Siervas de San Jose, excluding the house of Zamora, on July 1, 1901. It is the
pinnacle of Bonifacia's humiliation and self-emptying, as well as her heart's greatness. Without receiving
a response from the Bishop of Salamanca, D.Tomás Cámara y Castro, and motivated by her strong sense
of communion, she travels to Salamanca to speak with the sisters there personally. However, upon her
arrival at the House of Santa Teresa, she is informed that "we have been instructed not to receive you,"
and she returns to Zamora with a broken heart. She simply poured it out gently with these words: "I will
not return to my birthplace or to this beloved House of Santa Teresa." And once more, silence seals her
lips, leaving the community of Zamora unaware of what transpired until after her death.

Without receiving a response from the Bishop of Salamanca, D.Tomás Cámara y Castro, and motivated
by her strong sense of communion, she travels to Salamanca to speak with the sisters there personally.
However, upon her arrival at the House of Santa Teresa, she is informed that "we have been instructed
not to receive you," and she returns to Zamora with a broken heart. She simply poured it out gently with
these words: "I will not return to my birthplace or to this beloved House of Santa Teresa." And once
more, silence seals her lips, leaving the community of Zamora unaware of what transpired until after her
death. Even this new rejection does not separate her from her Salamanca daughters, and she confides in
God when she tells the sisters of Zamora: "when I die," convinced that the union will occur when she
dies. She dies in this city on August 8, 1905, surrounded by the love of her community and the people of
Zamora, who revere her as a holy person. The house of Zamora is incorporated into the Congregation on
January 23, 1907.

Bonifacia is drawn to the religious life. Her profound devotion to Mary sustains her dream of becoming a
Dominican at Salamanca's convent of Sta. Maria de Dueas. When Bonifacia Rodriguez's life comes to an
end, hidden and fertile like a grain of wheat thrown into the furrow, she leaves as an inheritance to the
entire Church:

— the testimony of her unwavering devotion to Jesus throughout the mystery of his hidden life in
Nazareth,

— an undeniably evangelical life,

— a spirituality centered on the sanctification of work in harmony with prayer in everyday life's
simplicity.