MADRID, Spain
The coffin of María Angeles Galino Carrillo arrived at the cemetery (Sacramental de San Lorenzo) in Madrid on Sunday, March 9, just after 1:00 PM. Her burial took place amid songs, poems, prayers, memories, and deep emotion.
She now rests in the burial place of the Teresian Association (TA), where Pedro Poveda was buried in 1936 and his remains rested there until they were moved to Los Negrales.
Friends, colleagues, members of various educational, cultural and church organizations, disciples, and many members of the Teresian Association were giving the final farewell to a former TA President at the funeral home from very early in the morning. In the religious ceremonies that followed people expressed gratitude for her life and recognized her virtues, talents, her fruitful pedagogical, social, political and religious work. Frs. Rafael Sanz de Diego and Agustín del Agua concelebrated a Mass in the chapel of the funeral home. Maite Uribe, President of the Teresian Association, said a few words filled with affection and gratitude.
Ahead of her time
Fr. Rafael Sanz de Diego said that Angeles Galino was "ahead of her time." He said: "We all know that she was ahead of her time, number one in her class, first female University professor in Spain, co-founder of the Spanish Society for the History of Pedagogy, advanced in politics and in the Church, and she was even ahead in the Teresian Association… She is also ahead in the celebration of Easter. M ª Angeles has gone ahead of us to celebrate Easter 2014. We thank God for her life, which she has ‘earned’ because she surrendered it."
He highlighted "the audacity of Angeles Galino, who entered into politics to support education," and stressed "her elegance, her affability, and her doing good.” His final words were to "thank God and the people who have been able to accompany her and help her." " Let us seize her legacy, her ideals, which were those of the Teresian Association, education, politics, women ... I invite you to follow in her footsteps," he concluded.
Maite Uribe's words
"Yesterday, the heart of Angeles, a woman who was President of the Teresian Association, rested in the Lord." said Maite Uribe, who also cited St. Augustine: "You made us for yourself, Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you." She continued: "To Him she (Angels Galino) gave her life at a the time when Pedro Poveda stated with a humble and profound conviction that the Teresian Association was the Work needed at that time. Angeles joined this Work and imbued it with the best gifts she had received from God.
She leaves an exceptionally rich legacy, proper of someone who knows how to integrate life and historical situations. For the TA she was able to combine, with extraordinary depth and admirable simplicity, the origins of the Work with the future that she foresaw with her penetrating and clear vision. In both past and future, in specific circumstances, she acheived collaboration from others to transform the evangelizing mission of the Teresian Association in various contexts into projects and actions, where the good news of the Gospel is made a reality.
Feeling all the TA united to those of us here and so many people who felt close to her at some point in their lives, we give thanks for the life of Angeles, for her tireless service, for her unwavering confidence in the action of the Spirit in each person, in the TA, in the Church, and in human history.
We say farewell to a woman who, like Teresa of Jesus, we can see as 'fully human and all God’s’. ' Angeles enfleshed the true humanism of Poveda, of which she often spoke masterfully and which she embodied with simplicity, both in her own life projects that we recognize as great as in everyday relationships.
She wanted to be all God’s, accepting the invitation: Until Christ is formed in you, while she made it friendly to those who had something to do with her. Her life, which we now present to the Lord with immense gratitude, was filled with signs that attested to the quality of that process: she was humble, sweet, kind, and charitable, prayerful, trusting in the mercy of God."
The heart of Angeles, where there was a burning and tender love for Our Lady, rested in the Lord yesterday, March 8, when society celebrated International Women's Day. As we thank God for her life in this Eucharist, we place before the Lord her untiring labors, her boldness and vision to serve the advancement of women and of an education that affirms the equal dignity of all human beings and opens them to a dimension of transcendence and to an experience of fraternity that enables us to call God Father.
We appreciate her way of bringing our lives to a Woman, Mary, for whom she always had words of endearing tenderness and deep closeness. To her she prayed asking for fortitude to accompany the most disadvantaged and suffering in the world.
Today we thank the Lord for the gift of a great woman for the TA, for the Church, and for History. A woman of faith, as Josefa Segovia was. A daughter of the Church who opened doors to the laity within it. A woman through whom we have received the gift to recognize the sentiments of the heart of Christ, to whom she is joined forever," said the President of the Teresian Association.
Prayers of the faithful
In the Eucharistic celebration, Justina Sánchez invited us to pray by recalling gifts of Angeles Galino: "A woman with a deep faith experience who lived the ‘true humanism’ that is born of the Incarnation with a deep sense of belonging to the Church. Lord, we pray for the Church, for all Christians, that nothing human may be alien to us and that we may know how to live and transmit the joy of the Gospel today.
Angeles Galino has taught countless generations and has been recognized as "their teacher" by many professors of History of Education because of the impact she had on their human and academic formation. Lord, we pray for the teachers of all levels of education, for today’s educators, for the many people who dedicate their talents to human and transformative education, for all the people that fight for the right to a quality and inclusive education of all the children in the world.
Angeles has always been an open person, committed to justice, a woman who listened, dialogued, and appreciated others. Lord, we ask for the gift of recognizing the dignity of all persons and their rights, that no human being may be indifferent to us, that we may feel their wounds and cries in our hearts, that we may learn in life the wisdom of social, intercultural, and inter-religious dialogue that is always an essential means for peace.
We recognize Angeles’ passion for a personalized education with real faces that cautioned about any sign of exclusion. Lord, we pray for so many children who have no chance at schooling, being excluded and marginalized from an early age. We pray for so many women who are not accorded their rights and are victims of gender violence. We know, Lord, that these children and these women are beloved to your heart and we want to love them. We ask that you let us know how to meet these far-reaching challenges today.
Angeles spent the long years of her life deeply committed to the spirit and mission of the Teresian Association. Lord, we ask that the members of the TA may live our vocation with joy, dedication and passion. Our vocation is necessary in our time in a dialogue between faith and knowledge, a vocation that is rooted in Jesus Christ and his Gospel."
Echoes of gratitude
At a certain time during the Eucharistic celebration, those present were invited to express what Angeles Galino had meant for them. The expressions came quickly and were verbalized naturally, like an echo of gratitude, recognition, appreciation, affection and nostalgia for the loss.
The following were some of the spoken expressions: "I give thanks for having had her as a teacher ... " “her ability to wait on people " "whoever met her was changed" "the encounter with her, her tenderness and demand made me grow," "her deep humanity, " "her joy and humility," "her Christian witness at the University," " her love for Mary," " her ecclesial commitment and universality," "her Marian experience," "the attention, care and love she had for students of the University," "thank you for her testimony during her illness," "her joy and kindness."
After the Eucharist, Fr. Rafael Sanz de Diego invited those present to recite the prayer of St. Ignatius of Loyola, so significant for the members of the Teresian Association. He said: "because she has prayed it many times and she has lived the prayer," " Take Lord, receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding and my entire will, all that I have and possess. You gave it to me and to You, Lord, I return it. Everything is yours. Dispose of it only according to your will. Give me only your love and your grace. That is enough for me."
A hug for eternity
As if it were difficult to say goodbye, before the funeral procession, the auxiliary Bishop of Madrid, Fidel Herráez, Maite Uribe, other members of the TA government, and a small group of people participated in a prayer led by the Bishop. He thanked God for the life of Angeles Galino and recognized her multiple responses to the deep calls from God. He also thanked the TA for forming people such as Angeles. At the end Bishop Fidel gave a hug to Maite Uribe, current President of the TA, “the hug he wanted to give Angeles," he said.
The last goodbye: It is not the end ...
It was a bright and sunny morning. There were flowers, many flowers, as an expression of love and thanks from the Teresian Association, the Alumnae Association of the Colegio Mayor Padre Poveda, the Josefa Segovia Residence, her city ( San Sebastián), several organizations, colleagues, family and friends.
After the last responsorial prayer, as in a procession, people walked to the old burial place of the Teresian Association, which has a white statue of the Sorrowful Mother. The coffin with the remains of Galino Angeles was placed there. Chants and prayers, poems and more farewell expressions followed.
From many cities of the world, many people also say THANKS, ANGELES, farewell.
Laura Moreno Marrocos.
Photos: Aurora Martín and Archivo Histórico I.T.
English Version: Guillermina Damas.