Laura Montoya

María Laura de Jesús Montoya Upegui was born on 26 May 1874 in Jericó in the United States of Colombia as the second of three children to Juan de la Cruz Montoya and Dolores Upegui; she was baptized that same day.^[3] Her siblings were older sister Carmelina and younger brother Juan de la Cruz; a maternal cousin was Luisa Upegui. During the Colombian Civil War of 1876 her father was killed and the household left poor as a result of this. Therefore she was sent to live with her maternal grandmother; her grandfather was Lucio Upegui.^[4]

In 1881 the precarious economic condition saw her sent to an orphanage that her maternal aunt María de Jesús Upegui, a religious sister, managed. This aunt in 1890 enrolled her at "Normale de Institutoras" of Medellín to receive training to become a school teacher as a means of having an income to support the financial difficulties her mother faced.^[3] Montoya was educated at the Escuela de Espíritu Santo in Amalfi and then in Medellín. In 1886 she went to live on a farm to care for an ill aunt and it was there that her desire to become a religious began. She graduated as a teacher in 1893.

In 1908 she began working with the natives in the Uraba and Sarare regions where she founded the "Works of the Indians". Montoya wanted to become a Discalced Carmelite, but felt growing within her the desire to spread the Gospel to those who had never met Jesus Christ. Montoya wanted to eliminate the existing racial discrimination and to sacrifice herself in order to bring them Christ's love and teachings.^[5]

On 14 May 1914, she started the Congregation of Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Virgin Mary and Saint Catherine of Siena. She left Medellín with four other women and went to Dabeiba to live among the native Indians. Even though this new congregation had the support of the Bishop of Santa Fe de Antioquia it was criticized even within Christian groups.^[4][5]

Montoya died after a prolonged illness on 21 October 1949 in Medellín, in Colombia. The last nine years of her life were lived in a wheelchair due to this. The congregation operates in a total of nineteen countries throughout the Americas as well as in Africa and Europe at present.^[4]

Laura combined contemplation, catechesis, literacy, health work, travel, and the formation of Indigenous and non-Indigenous collaborators. Her writings defended the dignity of peoples whom Colombian society often marginalized, while her missionary language also bears marks of its era and should be read critically rather than romanticized. Pope Francis praised an evangelizing pedagogy that respected culture instead of opposing it. This Christian witness points toward Christ and the universal call to holiness. Remembering it truthfully means neither making suffering desirable nor treating every choice, opinion, or later retelling as if the Catholic Church had canonized it.

Illness confined Laura to a wheelchair during the final nine years of her life, but she continued governing, writing, and forming sisters until her death in Medellín. Her congregation expanded beyond Colombia during and after her lifetime. Canonization recognizes her heroic fidelity and missionary charity; it does not settle every modern debate over mission, erase Indigenous agency, or approve each expression found in early twentieth-century sources. A sound account distinguishes documented events, contemporary testimony, and the Church's later judgment. That discipline protects both historical truth and authentic devotion, especially where illness, violence, politics, institutional power, or disputed memories are involved.