Franciscan Minims of the Perpetual Help of Mary


The Order of Atonement of the Franciscan Minims of the Perpetual Help of Mary is a single Roman Catholic active/contemplative religious order distinguished by three Branches: the Men's Branch for Priests and Brothers/Friars, the Women's Branch for Nuns and the Lay Branch for those of all ages and professions, including the sick, dying, and those children conceived but as yet "unborn" or "pre-born".
The Order was founded on June 24, 1942 in Zamora, Michoacan, Mexico by Reverend Mother María Concepción of the Nativity and the Perpetual Help of Mary. Called the Order of Atonement/Work of Atonement/the Legion of Victim Souls, "Minims" as "Victim Souls" live a life in keeping with their motto of "Charity and Immolation".
Those Franciscan Minims who profess public Religious vows receive a Religious habit, similar to the Franciscan Habit and the Carmelite Habit. However, the Habit of the Franciscan Minims of the Perpetual Help of Mary has the same colors of tunic and veil as Our Lady wears in Her Icon of Perpetual Help. Our Lady wears these same colors in Icons of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and many other famous icons, paintings and statues of the Blessed Ever-Virgin Mother of God. The Minim tunic is maroon, with a blue veil. In Mexico City, in the 1970s, the locals nicknamed the Nuns: "Los Rojos". Traditionally, this color was worn by poor Jewish women as it was an earthen color. Wealthier women wore white since they had servants and other means to maintain perfectly white cloth. In art, these colors traditionally signify both the Virginity and Motherhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The Order of Atonement of the Franciscan Minims of the Perpetual Help of Mary is not related to or an offshoot of the Minim also called the Minimi or Order of Minims, who are members of a Roman Catholic religious order of Franciscan friars founded by Saint Francis of Paola

Origins

The Order's establishment began according to the Foundress of the Order, Reverend Mother María Concepción of the Nativity and the Perpetual Help of Mary, when she was still a young girl. María Concepción Zúñiga López writes that Jesus Christ instructed and dictated the Rule and Constitutions of the Order to her.
During and after María Concepción's First Holy Communion of anti-Catholic, anti-Church religious persecution by the atheist Mexican president Plutarco Elías Calles.
Living in a secular household during a time of violent religious persecution in Mexico, María Concepción Zúñiga López had never seen women living in a Religious community and did not even know Religious Life for women existed. At one point in her education, she was learning secretarial skills that include typing and short hand from a group of women who taught in a business school near her home. María Concepción told her spiritual director, a famous Mexican bishop in hiding, that she was drawn to a life of prayer and the bishop explained to her that the women who were teaching her were Carmelites in hiding and actually belonged to a Religious Congregation, the Carmelite Sisters of the Sacred Heart founded in María Concepción's home town of Jalisco by Venerable Mother María Luisa Josefa of the Most Blessed Sacrament. On June 24, 1927, Mother Luisa and two other sisters sought refuge in Los Angeles from the religious persecutions in Mexico at that time. This led to the establishment of twelve Carmels in the United States with a novitiate and eventually to the establishment of the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles a sister-congregation to the foundation in Mexico.

Apostolate

Franciscan Minims of the Perpetual Help of Mary live the Primitive Rule of Saint Francis of Assisi and at their Profession make five Vows: Poverty, Chastity, Obedience, and two special Vows particular to the Order, the Vow of Victim to the Divine Justice and Mercy of Christ, and the Vow of Obedience to the Pope. The Superior General of the Order of Atonement of the Franciscan Minims of the Perpetual Help of Mary is the Pope, so "the Lord" instructed the Foundress of the Order regarding the focus of the work of the Franciscan Minims for the Holy See, which included living and preaching the Gospel in word, work and prayer to end schism within the Church and to catechize and convert schismatics, apostates, and those who had, in any way, separated themselves from the Church and the Vicar of Christ. Mother María Concepción of the Nativity and the Perpetual Help of Mary began all her writings and correspondence with the words: "Long Live the Vicar of Christ". Pope Paul VI was the Vicar of Christ during the Second Foundation of the Order of Atonement in Mexico City.
The work of the Apostolate of a Franciscan Minim Nuns begins with their motto "Charity and Immolation" through Perpetual Eucharistic adoration in union with the Eucharistic Victim Heart of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament. The Minim Nuns live a Religious Life that is both active and contemplative with a special focus on strengthening the family by catechizing Catholic mothers and women living in the world through their frequent religious conferences and retreats for women.
The Order which began as a "Pious Union" in Zamora, Michoacán, Mexico on June 24, 1942 and given status as a Sodality on October 2, 1942 never ceased to exist canonically even though it was disbanded on October 23, 1951 by Bishop Jose G. Anaya. Canonical status was reaffirmed in Rome under Pope Paul VI on October 30, 1963 after Mother María Concepción made a trip to Rome under the auspices of this same Bishop of Zamora who had earlier disbanded the 1st Foundation. With the express authorization of the Sacred Congregation of Religious, dated October 1963, the Order was founded a second time in Chilapa, Guerrero, Mexico in January 1964. Again, it received approval as a Pious Union in Mexico on September 1, 1964 after being placed under the protection of a Mexican Bishop, Fidel de Sta Maria Cortes Perez, whom the Pope introduced to Mother María Concepción while she was in Rome. Pope Paul VI assigned this Bishop to assist the Foundress during her trip to Rome in October 1963, a trip she made to ask Pope Paul VI for His help to reestablish the Order and then to give the Order His full Papal Approval. Due to the untimely death of Pope Paul the VI and the deaths of several Bishops involved with promoting the Order, as well as, interference from certain Mexican prelates, including a Congregation of priests from Mexico and others working both in Mexico and inside the Vatican who opposed the Order's receiving direct Papal institution, approval and direction, the status of this request is still pending.
Mother María Concepción of the Nativity and the Perpetual Help of Mary was not disturbed that she might die without seeing the final establishment and approval of the Order by the Holy See. In 1963, just prior to the end of her exclaustration María Concepción Zúñiga López wrote in a brief autobiography of her life about the founding of the Order of Atonement, which she handed to Pope Paul VI during her first meeting with this Vicar of Christ:
Mother María Concepción of the Nativity and the Perpetual Help of Mary died on October 15, the Feast of Saint Teresa of Jesus aka Saint Teresa of Avila, in 1979.

Atonement ... The Victim ... Redemptive Suffering

A supernatural discussion of the role of sacrifice, the offering or victim and the consummation of the offering/victim even to the shedding of blood and/or death as atonement to the Divine Justice for sin is as old as the Sacred Scriptures of the Hebrews. In Genesis, the two brothers Cain and Abel each act on their own understanding and interpretation of how and what they will offer to God as a sacrifice of the first fruits of their labors and talents with "the Lord's" direct response, involvement and discussion documented.
A few thousand years later, "the Lord" gives Moses specific instructions concerning The Day of Atonement and the scapegoat which is burdened with a list of sins and sent into the desert as a victim and a sin offering. These religious exercises foreshadow the redemptive suffering which according to the Prophet Isaiah will signal the "promised" Messiah/Christ and which forms the basis of Atonement in Christianity.
Individuals in every age who promote political ideology, caste systems, palliative sedation, mercy killing, utopia and other means including preternatural mental techniques to eliminate suffering generally reject the suggestion that suffering can have any value or redemptive merit. Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta was criticized for her view on suffering. Her Faith taught her that suffering could bring people closer to Jesus. At a press conference during her October 1981 visit to Washington D.C, Mother Teresa stated, "I think it is very beautiful for the poor to accept their lot, to share it with the passion of Christ. I think the world is being much helped by the suffering of the poor people."
St Therese of Lisieux, a Discalced Carmelite Nun, understood redemptive suffering as perfect Love for God: "In order to live in one single act of perfect Love, I OFFER MYSELF AS A VICTIM OF HOLOCAUST TO YOUR MERCIFUL LOVE, asking You to consume me incessantly, allowing the waves of infinite tenderness shut up within You to overflow into my soul, and that thus I may become a martyr of Your Love, O my God!" In a letter to her sister St Therese writes on September 8, 1896: "Oh Jesus! why can't I tell all little souls how unspeakable is Your condescension? I feel that if You found a soul weaker and littler than mine, which is impossible, You would be pleased to grant it still greater favors, provided it abandoned itself with total confidence to Your Infinite Mercy...Yes, I know it, and I beg you to do it. I beg You to cast Your Divine Glance upon a great number of little souls. I beg You to choose a LEGION of little Victims worthy of Your Love."