Amalia of Jesus Flagellated

Amalia of Jesus Flagellated MJC (22 July 1901 – 18 April 1977), born Amalia Aguirre Queija, was a Catholic religious sister and mystic. She was co-founder of the institute of the Missionary Sisters of Jesus Crucified, best known for receiving, in the 1930s, the apparitions of Our Lady of Tears in Campinas, Brazil. Among the miraculous events surrounding her life are, among others, visions and stigmata.

Life
Amalia Aguirre Queija was born in 1901 in Ríos (Galicia). Her parents were immigrants to Brazil, However, Amalia, who was pious and devoted to works of charity, stayed in Spain and cared for sufferers of the Great Flu pandemic. In summer 1919, she followed her parents to Brazil. In 1928, she co-founded, with Bishop Francisco de Barreto, a religious institute in Campinas (São Paulo), which was called the Missionaries of Crucified Jesus and took the religious name Amalia de Jesus Flagelado (the Portuguese flagelado in refers to Jesus Christ's torture at the pillar). She lived in the monastery of Campinas until 1953, when she was sent to the House of Our Lady of the Apparition in Taubaté (São Paulo), where she died in 1977.

Ecclesiastical approval
On March 8, 1931, Francisco de Campos Barreto, Bishop of Campinas, recognized the veracity of the apparitions of Our Lady to Sister Amalia and granted the imprimatur for the publication of sister Amalia's writings (which included the messages of Jesus and the Virgin Mary) and the prayers of the Crown of Our Lady of Tears. On February 20, 1934, Barreto published an episcopal letter reinforcing the importance of devotion to Our Lady of Tears.

Beatification process
On June 16, 2023, D. João Inácio Müller, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Campinas, opened a canonical process for the beatification of Sister Amalia, which is ongoing.