Bl. Alexandrina Maria da Costa

## Life Alexandrina Maria da Costa was born on March 30, 1904, in the rural parish of Balasar, near Póvoa de Varzim in northern Portugal. Raised in a devout Catholic family, she was known for her cheerful nature and strong work ethic, laboring in the fields to help support her family. On Holy Saturday, March 31, 1918, when Alexandrina was fourteen years old, three men broke into her home attempting to assault her and her companions. To preserve her purity, she jumped from a window, falling about twelve feet. The fall irreparably damaged her spine. She gradually became paralyzed and by age nineteen was completely bedridden, a condition she would endure for the remaining thirty years of her life. Initially, Alexandrina prayed for miraculous healing, promising to become a missionary. Gradually she came to understand that suffering was her vocation. She said: "Our Lady has given me an even greater grace: first, abandonment; then, complete conformity to God's will; finally, the thirst for suffering." From October 3, 1938, until March 24, 1942, Alexandrina experienced Christ's Passion mystically every Friday for three hours, her paralyzed body moving through the Stations of the Cross while enduring excruciating physical and spiritual pain. Beginning March 27, 1942, a new phase began that would confound medical science: Alexandrina received no nourishment except the Holy Eucharist for the remaining thirteen years and seven months of her life. In 1943, she underwent forty days of rigorous observation at Foce del Douro Hospital in Porto, where doctors confirmed she consumed nothing but daily Holy Communion. The official medical report declared the phenomenon "scientifically inexplicable." Despite constant suffering, visitors always found Alexandrina joyful and smiling, transmitting profound peace. She died on October 13, 1955—the anniversary of the final apparition at Fátima—her last words being: "I am happy, because I am going to Heaven." ## Veneration Alexandrina requested that her tombstone bear this inscription: "Sinners, if the dust of my body can be of help to save you, come close, walk over it, kick it around until it disappears. But never sin again: do not offend Jesus anymore!" She was beatified by Pope John Paul II on April 25, 2004, who declared that "her secret to holiness was love for Christ." Her tomb is now in the Parish Church of Santa Eulália in Balasar, and her house has been preserved as a museum. The cause for her canonization continues. **Feast Day:** October 13 **Patronage:** Eucharistic devotion, victim souls, purity