The closing celebration of the Festas do Senhor Santo Cristo dos Milagres in Ponta Delgada on Thursday became not only a moment of spiritual farewell to this year’s festivities, but also a renewed appeal for the beatification of Mother Teresa da Anunciada — the seventeenth-century Clarissan nun whose devotion forever transformed the religious soul of the Azores.

During the final Mass, celebrated in honor of the religious figure at the Convent of Nossa Senhora da Esperança, Monsignor Manuel Carlos Alves, rector of the sanctuary, reflected on the first formal steps toward the beatification process and expressed hope that a future papal visit to the Azores in 2034 — marking the five-hundredth anniversary of the Diocese of Angra — might coincide with the proclamation of Mother Teresa as a blessed figure of the Catholic Church.

“I add to the request made by the Bishop, who has already invited the Pope to visit the Azores during the great jubilee year of 2034, another request connected to the beatification of Mother Teresa da Anunciada,” the priest declared. “It would be beautiful if that announcement could happen at that time.”

Throughout his homily, Monsignor Alves centered his reflection on the commandments and beatitudes, emphasizing love of God and neighbor as the true measure of Christian life.

“My commandment is love of God and love of neighbor,” he told the faithful, inviting those present to examine the authenticity of their own faith. “What do you give from your life that demonstrates you are truly connected to Jesus?”

The answer, he said, must come “with humility and awareness,” despite human imperfection and weakness.

Within that spiritual framework, Mother Teresa da Anunciada emerged as the living example of total surrender to divine love.

“Teresa da Anunciada sought to hear the Word of God and put it into practice, always following Him,” the rector said, recalling how the nun referred to Christ as “my beloved” while seeing herself merely as “an instrument” in His hands.

Drawing from the religious woman’s autobiographical writings, Monsignor Alves recounted episodes that illustrated her mystical worldview and unwavering faith, including moments involving everyday matters such as taxes on sugar and olive oil, which Mother Teresa interpreted as manifestations of God’s action within her life.

Yet above all, the rector highlighted what many consider her most enduring spiritual and historical legacy: the decision to bring the image of Senhor Santo Cristo beyond the walls of the convent and into the streets of São Miguel.

“The departure of the image from the convent walls would save many souls,” he said, attributing that courageous act to Mother Teresa’s inspiration and spiritual conviction.

For generations of Azoreans, that gesture transformed a cloistered devotion into the largest and most powerful religious manifestation of the archipelago — one that would eventually accompany emigrants across oceans and become a spiritual anchor for Azorean communities throughout the world.

“May she be recognized and proposed without hesitation as a model Christian life for all of us,” Monsignor Alves declared.

He described Mother Teresa’s life as one marked by tears and hope alike.

“She lived eighty years with many tears, but also with much hope,” he said, always turning toward Christ through the venerated image of Senhor Santo Cristo.

According to the rector, even the artistic elements visible in the sacred image itself carry traces of Mother Teresa’s devotion.

“What we see in the image are symbols of Mother Teresa’s love for her Lord,” he reflected — a love that, over centuries, “contaminated the people of São Miguel” and shaped the spiritual identity of generations.

The ceremony concluded with the traditional drawing for the ceremonial cape of Senhor Santo Cristo. The cape, donated in 2011 by the emigrant Moniz family living in the United States, first appeared in the procession in 2013 and is now scheduled to return again in 2027.

During the closing proceedings, church officials also raised the possibility of creating a protective acrylic structure to better preserve the sacred image during future processions, particularly as increasingly unstable weather conditions and harsher climatic patterns continue to affect the Region with greater frequency.

As the final prayers faded inside the Convent of Esperança, the closing of the festivities seemed to carry a deeper resonance this year.

Not only the end of another cycle of devotion, but the reopening of a centuries-old hope: that the woman who once carried the image of Senhor Santo Cristo into the streets of São Miguel may one day herself be formally carried into the canonized memory of the Church.

And perhaps nowhere would that recognition feel more natural than in these Atlantic islands where faith, suffering, migration, and hope have so long walked together beneath the same procession sky.

Translated and adapted from a story in Correio dos Açores- Natalino Viveiros, director.