Bl. Ascension of the Heart of Jesus Nicol Goni

Ascension Nicol Goni, of Tafalla, Spain, was inspired to become a nun from the example of the Dominican sisters who taught her in school. At the age of seventeen, she entered a Dominican convent, and became a teaching sister herself. After serving in this capacity for twenty-eight years, she volunteered for a mission in Peru, where a local bishop was in need of missionary sisters to catechize the people living in the Peruvian forest. Following their arrival in Lima, Peru, Sister Ascension and the other nuns accompanying her made a dangerous journey across the Andes and along treacherous rivers to reach their final destination. The nuns founded a girls' school and nursed the sick. Upon the request of the Dominicans' master general, Sister Ascension co-founded with the local bishop a new congregation, the Dominican Missionary Sisters of the Rosary. As the first superior of this institute, Mother Ascension was sustained by deep devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Blessed Virgin under the title of Our Lady of the Rosary. She died on February 24, 1940.