Carmen Sánchez Beato, born in Astorga on 12 March 1906, died in Madrid on 13 July 1998. She was president of the Teresian Association from 1957 to 1977, succeeding Josefa Segovia.
Carmen Sánchez Beato was born in Astorga on 12 March 1906. She studied to become a teacher in Logroño and joined the Teresian Association in 1929. She worked as a state school teacher in San Juan de la Encinilla, in the province of Salamanca, during 1930 and 1931. In 1938, she obtained a degree in Law from the University of Salamanca and subsequently undertook advanced studies in Theology, Mariology and Catechetics.
She directed the Santa María de la Almudena Teacher Training College in Madrid from 1948 to 1957, the year in which Josefa Segovia died and she was elected president of the TA. Prior to this, she had already held various positions of responsibility within the Association. From 1940 to 1950, she was a member of the General Council and served as vice-president from 1950 to 1957.
When she was president, she encouraged the members to pursue higher education and she expanded the reach of Poveda’s charism around the world: Taiwan, Jordan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then Zaire), Colombia… and new projects in Europe and the Americas. She also supported the revival of the ‘co-operative associations of the Associations’ which the founder had established and which, after years of inactivity, began to take on a new lease of life through various associations now known by the acronym ACIT.
As TA president, Carmen Sánchez Beato wrote numerous letters on topics of spiritual theology addressed to the members of the Association. She also encouraged publications by members of the TA, as well as the journals: Eidos, that focused on education; Crítica, that succeeded publications launched in the early days of the Association; and Nuevamérica, a Latin American journal – now published in Brazil – which fosters dialogue among the countries of the subcontinent.
During her tenure, Carmen travelled to the countries where the Association is present and met various prominent figures from the Church and the world of education, society and culture. In the photograph, we see her with Dom Hêlder Câmara, Archbishop Emeritus of Olinda and Recife in Brazil and a leading Church figure in the post-conciliar period for his defence of human rights and non-violence, during a visit to Spain in May 1992.
At the 1977 General Assembly, Carmen Sánchez Beato brought to a close two decades at the helm of the TA. From then until her death, she devoted herself to the ‘Pedro Poveda and Josefa Segovia Secretariat’, an office dedicated to promoting the legacy of the founder and his principal collaborator. As well as being part of Josefa Segovia’s governing team and having worked closely with her, Carmen Sánchez Beato had met Pedro Poveda a few years before his death. She was in Madrid when the founder was arrested and died a martyr. In 1993, she had the joy of attending his beatification in Rome.
Hand in hand with Mary
The death of Carmen Sánchez Beato, aged 92 and on the eve of the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, brought together friends, priests and members of the TA who knew her and held her in high esteem. At her funeral and burial on 16 July, the atmosphere of gratitude for her fruitful life inspired all those present to show their appreciation, just as they would on her name day. She set out on her journey to the New Life hand in hand with Mary, whose devotion she had spread and encouraged.
Angeles Galino, her successor at the head of the Association, painted this brief portrait of her: ‘A woman of action and leadership, she was above all a contemplative soul, a big heart, a life lived for others.’
In an obituary piece in the magazine Alfa y Omega, Marisa Rodríguez, editor of Crítica, wrote: “It is fair to say that her life was a paradigm of the Povedan charism – that way of being at the heart of temporal structures with a uniqueness that strengthens us from within. She knew full well that fostering dialogue between faith and science requires well-prepared people, and she devoted herself to this goal, educating numerous generations of young people. Carmen never lost her zest for life, nor her desire for others to live life to the full, nor her faith in the youngest among us, nor her trust in weakness. Towards the end of her days, she was a young-at-heart elderly woman with a sharp mind and a warm heart.’
‘A faithful and devoted woman,’ remarked Arantxa Aguado, then TA president, ‘who will continue to accompany us on the path of the ecclesial mission entrusted to us at this time in the history of the world.’
TA Info.
TA Translation Team.
Published in Profiles