Saint of the Day

01 · Read · A life to discover

St. Laura Montoya

Laura Montoya was a Colombian teacher whose difficult childhood included the loss of her father. Her educational work developed into a missionary vocation among Indigenous communities. She founded the Missionary Sisters of Mary Immaculate and Saint Catherine of Siena, seeking a form of teaching and evangelization attentive to the people with whom the sisters lived.

Her father's death was followed by economic hardship and an unsettled upbringing. At sixteen she entered teacher training in Medellín, finding in education both a livelihood and a vocation. In 1914 she and a small group went to Dabeiba, giving practical form to the missionary project that became her congregation.

Her writings, including an autobiography, describe spiritual struggle as well as the practical difficulties of establishing this community. Catholic accounts emphasize her efforts to understand local cultures and to challenge prejudice against Indigenous people. Restricted by illness and a wheelchair during her final years, she continued guiding others through correspondence and writing. She died in Medellín in 1949, leaving an established missionary congregation.

Her proposed manner of life challenged expectations of where religious women should live and work. She asked companions to share the poverty and daily circumstances of the people they served. The surviving autobiography is especially valuable as her own spiritual testimony, while also requiring recognition of the missionary language and assumptions of its historical period.

Commemorated October 21.