Alexandrina de Balasar – Alexandrina Maria da Costa

Mission of Alexandrina de Balasar Mission

Each one of us has a mission in life designed by God – Alexandrina de Balasar had one too – a big, demanding and beautiful mission. Jesus entrusted to her:

• the Tabernacles;
• the salvation of the souls of sinners;
• the repair of Jesus in the Eucharist;
• the repair of His Sacred Heart;
• and the fulfillment of the Divine Desire of Consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

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Everything about Alexandrina of Balasar – Historical timeline

The mystic phenomena are in italics.

• 1904 – March, 30th: Alexandrina Maria da Costa is born in Balasar, district of Oporto (Portugal)
• 1911 – From January, until the end of July 1912, Alexandrina lives in a pension located in Povoa de Varzim, where she attends to the first class of primary school. She receives the first communion from the hands of Father Álvaro de Matos, at the main church, and the Holy Chrism from the hands of D. António Barbosa Leão, Oporto Bishop (1911).
• 1913 –  Alexandrina works hard in order to earn her sustenance. She is a member of the coral group of the parish and catechist. First manifestations of her love for the mental prayer.
• 1916 – Alexandrina gets sick with typhus and receives the Last Sacraments. Her mother lays the crucifix in her hand, and she says « It’s not this one I want, but Jesus Eucharistic »

• 1918 – Alexandrina works as a maid in a neighbor’s house. For health reasons, she must quit work forever. – She spends a few months at Povoa for treatment. – In the month of March she jumps out of a window in order to save her purity.
• 1923 – Doctor João de Almeida, from Oporto, states she will become paralyzed.
• 1925 – April, 14th – Alexandrina retreats to her bed forever. Without knowing how, she offers herself as a victim and starts asking for the love of suffering. – She begins to celebrate the months of May with solemnity, in honour of Our Lady.
• 1928 – The voyage in a parish pilgrimage to Fátima gives Alexandrina the desire for healing and she does novenas. – While she feels disappointed, a thought runs through her mind: «Jesus is prisoner in the tabernacle; I’m a prisoner too». – She composes the prayer to the sacrarium. – Little flowers for the Eucharistic reparation.

• 1930 – A strong heat invades Alexandrina’s heart and sweeps her away from her long prayers.
• 1931 – The first intimate invitation of Jesus to the immolation: «to Love, to Suffer, to Repair».
• 1933 – The priest that used to take her Jesus everyday is replaced by Father Leopoldino Rodrigues Mateus (3-7-1933); whom, in the beginning, gives her the Communion only on the first Fridays, and afterwards everyday – August, 16th – 20th : Alexandrina meets her first Director Father Mariano Pinho, S. J. – October, 18th : She receives the Daughter of Mary Ribbon. – November, 20th : Celebration of the first Mass in her bedroom.
• 1934 – September, 6th : First invitation to the crucification: «Give me your hands, give me your feet, I want to nail them». – September, 8th : Jesus becomes her master. – September, 4th : The devil starts tormenting her imagination. October, 5th and 10th : The promise of a spiritual betrothal with the Divine Spouse. October, 11th : Invitation to the mission to be victim: « Help me in the redemption of humankind». October, 15th : Jesus, artist of her soul. – December. 20th : Jesus entrusts her the sacrarium and the sinners.
• 1935 – Alexandrina solemnizes the month of Mary with daily little flowers she writes; The consecration at the end of the month. – July, 30th ; Jesus asks her for the first time for the consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary; He instructs her to have the director write to the Pope towards this end.
• 1936 – The feast of the Most Holy Trinity: she experiences her first mystical death.
• 1937 – April: With Alexandrina’s health much depleted, the Priest starts taking her the Holy Communion everyday. – May, 31st : Father António Durão, S. J., examines Alexandrina, in the name of the Holy See, about her request for the Consecration. From July until 7th October, there are revenges and visible persecutions from the devil. – Mrs. Fernanda dos Santos, from Lisbon, already deceased, gives assistance to the poverty of Alexandrina.
• 1938 – October, 3rd : For the first time she suffers the Passion, that will be repeated every Friday until 20th of March 1942. – April, 5th : Jesus confirms the spiritual betrothal with the soul of Alexandrina. – Purification of the senses revealed through a blazing thirst and the feeling of unbearable odours; which takes place immediately after the first Passion. – The second examination requested by the Holy See is made by the Canon Father Manuel P. Vilar. – December, 6th : Voyage to Oporto, to be examined by doctors. – December, 26th : Examined by professor Elísio Moura.
• 1939 – March, 20th . «Jesus gives her the prediction about the new Pontifex Pio XII: This is the Pope who will consecrate the world to the Heart of My Mother». – June, 16th : Feast of the Sacred Heart: Alexandrina asks the Pope for the last time that the world be consecrated to the Heart of Mary. – January, 20th , 13th ; June, 28th : Jesus gives her the prediction of war as punishment for severe sins. – Alexandrina offers herself as a victim for peace.

• 1940 – July, 4th : Alexandrina joins others souls of the world and in union with Our Lady they offer themselves as victims to obtain peace at least to her homeland, Jesus accepts the offer and emphatically states: « Portugal will be saved ». – December, 6th : Jesus assures her that the Holy Priest would be physically spared from the horrors of war, but would experience a great moral suffering.
• 1941 – January, 4th ; April, 5th : Jesus asks her repeatedly for the Consecration in order to obtain world peace. February, 14th : Dr. Manuel Augusto Dias Azevedo, becomes her attending physician, «the providential doctor»; June, 15th : Alexandrina visits Oporto for a medical appointment.
• 1942 – January, 7th : Alexandrina loses her first Director. – January, 20th : Father Pinho appoints has her confessor Father Alberto Gomes. – March, 20th : She suffers the Passion for the last time; March, 27th : Her condition gets worse and the sacraments are administered; She enters into the second mystic death, with severe pain, because she perceives a kind of destruction and incineration of her own body; until 24th October of 1944; She dictates her last disposals, persuaded that she is going to die; she enters into total fasting and anuria, living only on the Eucharist until her death(October of 1955): instead of the Passion from now on she will experience Fridays’ ecstasies. – in the same day she predicts the Consecration to the Heart of Mary is near, – September, 5th : She feels she will be transformed by love.
• 1943 – From 10th of June to 20th of July: at the Refúgio de Paralisia Infantil (Child Paralysis Haven), Alexandrina is observed by Dr. Araújo regarding her fasting and anuria. – October, 11th : Jesus confirms to her that Portugal will be free from the war. – October, 31th : She suffers the sorrows of purgatory.
• 1944 – February: Separation of the spirit from the soul. – May, 13th : She is mystically buried. – June, 21th : the first encounter with Father Humberto Pasquale, S.D.B., who will become her second Director. – June, 3th : Jesus delivers her the heart. – August, 5th. Jesus like a burglar enters her and takes that which is life for the body: this part spends a day in Heaven, and the body remains in the utmost pain. Criticism and slander against her life (Summer). – September, 8th : Father Humberto officially assumes her spiritual direction. October, 24th : She begins to suffer the intimate Passion of Jesus, that would last till her death. In the Autumn she suffers at large intervals the sorrows of hell, with stages more or less intense until October 1945. – October, 24th : she feels herself a tabernacle of the Most Holy Trinity. – November, 4th :Divine operations of the Holy Spirit. – November, 10th : Arrows of love pierce her heart. – November, 16th : She recognizes herself sensibly transformed in Christ. – November, 27th : Jesus calls her «Blessed of My Father». – First Saturday of the month: She is crowned queen of Our Lady. – December, 8th : Jesus and Our Lady deliver and enclose humanity into her heart. – Attempts of taking away her Director. – December, 29th . Her mystical matrimony.
• 1945 – Alexandrina is registered among the Cooperadores Salesianos (Salesian Co-operant) . – February, 26th : She feels transformed into sin and she unthreads for a long time the several categories of sins. – March, 3rd : Jesus dilates her heart. March, 19th : Message to the families: To imitate the family of Nazareth. – April, 24th : Promise of perseverance, privilege of which allusions may be found in other places: for instance: in the ecstasy of the 23th of June 1944, referred to in this volume. May, 11th: Exchanges of hearts between Jesus and her. May, 20th : Union of the two hearts. – June, 26th: Jesus transforms her into Him. – July, 23th : She is admitted to the contemplation of the Most Holy Trinity. – August, 13th :She contemplates once again the August Trinity. – August, 23th : She is overlayed as if transformed into sin. – September, 1st : New and great manifestations of her transformation into Christ. – September, 14th : Jesus pours Himself into the heart of Alexandrina.
• 1946 – January, 4-16: Mystical resurrection and Ascension to Heaven. – January, 11th : Divine operations of the Holy Spirit, during this year she feels inside herself the action of the Eternal Father (undated document). – October, 3rd : She is placed resting on two boards and so she will remain until her death. November, 1st : Mystical resurrection. – November, 22th :New darts of love are launched by a flight of angels. – November, 24th : New examinations from a theologian and an atheist doctor, that leave her in a painful condition. – December, 25th : An important little letter to Infant Jesus, in which she renounces the realization of the promises of God and renounces her own life.
• 1947 – April, 4th : Mystical descent into the limbo. April, 15th : Confirmation of her mystical matrimony. – July, 20th : Feeling sick, she writes her testament letter to the sinners.
• 1948 – February, 6th : Alexandrina lives for a long time the mystery of the Church, symbolized in the tower that Hermas describes. She will relive this symbol particularly since 1953 onwards. During that time in some ecstasies, she will release this grieved appeal: «The Church! The Church!» – She will penetrate… into the intimate Passion of Jesus. – July, 14th : She writes a little letter to the sinners, to be put into her tomb. – September, 23th : She loses her second Director.
• 1949 – April, 22th : Alexandrina lives the symbol of the tower. June, 24th : Jesus instructs her to distribute the riches of His Divine Heart. – September, 2nd : Jesus promises her that He will call many sinners toward her grave and convert them. – October, 2nd : Our Lady asks her to hold the souls against herself with the Rosary.
• 1950 – March, 10th : Jesus shows her the need to multiply the victims’ souls in the world. October, 20th : For some time, while carrying her sins, she feels she’s poisoning humanity with all her senses.
• 1951 – January, 26th : Alexandrina sees the tower, the Church is badly threatened by all the wild beasts. – February, 2nd :She sees herself as a giant sepulcher, where she must enclose all the mortality of a sinning world, to give everyone life, the life of Christ. – March, 23th : Jesus promises her that she will not have a Friday without Communion. When there is no priest, on such a day, ever since, she will receive communion from the very hands of Jesus or an angel.
• 1952 – January,5th : Jesus promises her that many souls will become ardently Eucharistic by following her example. During this year there is a great increase in the number of people that come to visit Alexandrina. – She feels she’s a fisherman with many nets to cast towards the souls. Jesus tells her: «you live My public life». – May. 30th : Jesus tell her : «I was never, never away from you, ever since your baptism.»
• 1953 – In the day of St. Joseph Alexandrina receives in hearing 570 people, that come to Balasar using every mean of transport. – May, 9th : She receives almost two thousand people; she talks for approximately ten hours. – June, 5th : She receives almost five thousand people and on the 10th almost six thousand; there were 180 cars and dozens of coaches. After these hearings, in groups of fifty, she was asked if she felt tired and she would answer: «I could receive many more». November, 20th : Jesus names the house of Alexandrina «Calvary of Sinners». – December, 25th : Last public ecstasy, the promise is being fulfilled: the end is near: Vision of the Most Holy Trinity.
• 1954 – April, 9th : The 12th anniversary of total fasting; Jesus tells her. «I placed you in the world, I make you live only on Me so as to prove the world how much the Eucharist is worth and what My life is in the souls». – In these last months she discounts the sins against faith and hope. – September, 10th : Just like previously, in mystical death, animals and birds devoured her body, now she feels they devour her soul. – October, 1st : Her mission: « To ignite the world with the love of Jesus and Mary». – 1st Friday: Mystical stigmata of love.
• 1955 – January, 7th : Jesus predicts to her her death: «This is your year, this is your year, this is your year!» – January, 28th : He tells her «You are among My Saints». – February, 4th : The Eternal Father tells her «This is our beloved daughter, upon which our eyes were always standing». – March, 4th : Sense of smell’s Martyrdom, afflicted by unbearable odours. – May, 6th : The Immaculate Heart of Mary tells her: «Soon enough I will come for you». – October, 13th : She flies towards Heaven.
• 1965 – The salesian spiritual director of Alexandrina by invitation of the archbishop of Braga, starts the diocesan process about the virtues of fame and holiness of Alexandrina.

• 1966 – Collection of the writings sent by Alexandrina.
• 1967 – Opening of the diocesan process on all the writings. 48 witnesses start to be questioned by the ecclesiastical court.
• 1973 – In the presence of the Postulator General of the Salesian, the diocesan process is closed. On the 21st of May two boxes of written testimonies are open by the Holy Congregation.
• 1974 – On the 26th of March, the first theologian encharged by the Holy See, gives his affirmative vote on the writings of the Servant of God.
• 1976 – On the 30th of November, the second theologian gives his affirmative vote as well.
• 1977 – The Sacred Congregation to the Doctrine of the Faith gives its «Nihil Obstat» to the cause.
• 1978 – On the 18th of July, the mortal remains of Alexandrina are translated from the cemetery to a chapel prepared at the parish church. The Sacred Congregation for the Causes of Saints issues the decree that approves the writings. On September, Postulation editions publishes the Summary of the Virtues extracted from the testimonies of the diocesan process.
• 1979 – «Postulatory Letters» from Archbishops, bishops, the Portuguese Episcopal Conference and Eminent Figures of the Church, are sent to the Holy Priest asking for the beatification of the Servant of God.
  1980 – On the 25th of July, in face of the evidence collected, the Cause is worthy of being accepted to be studied, which culminates with a formal request to the Holy Priest.
• 1995 – Miraculous cure of a lady who suffered from Parkinson. The case is studied and a report by the Diocesan Court of Braga is sent to the doctors at the Holy See.
• 1996 – On the 12th of January Alexandrina is declared Venerable by the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints.
• 2004 – On the 25th April, Alexandrina is beatified, in Rome by Pope John Paul II.

Jesus entrust to her the Tabernacles and sinners. Alexandrina de Balasar responds to this Divine project: «My daughter, my little daughter, the Providence is so good to you. The Holy Trinity loves you so much in Heaven! Give them back the love. Come to My Tabernacles; live there. The strength comes from there. Love Me greatly, just think about Me. Let the world and all the rest on it, which is nothing.” […]

On the 11th, at the end of the Blessed Sacrament’s visit I did my spiritual Communion, offered myself to Our Lord present in my soul and spirit to all the Tabernacles in the world for Him to sacrifice myself for the sinners.

“My suffering is growing but I do not fear because my dear Jesus suffers with me. In fact, it’s just the other way around. I feel happy and satisfied because increasing my suffering I can better help the poor sinners and relieve the burden of Our Lord.»

Balasar

Balasar is located 12 Km from Póvoa de Varzim, district of Oporto, in the far east of the council. Historically, Balasar is mentioned in the General Inquiries required by D. Afonso II (1220) under the name of “Sancta Eolália de Balazar”. However, this was not the primitive name of the area where the parish presently stands.

In ancient times, Balasar was a Luso-Roman village, belonging to the settlement of Bagunte. The very name «Balazar» is a corruption of «Belisári», which ancient name, as proved in some documents, was «Belsar». There were here two administrative divisions, one called “Gresufes” and the other called “Casal”, which in 1442 were united and given the name of the smallest place of the parish, Balazar.

Until 1836, Balasar was part of the council of Barcelos, being incorporated in this year in the council of Póvoa de Varzim. In 1853, Balasar was included in the council of Vila Nova de Famalicão but two years later it returns to Póvoa.

Balasar it’s the birthplace of Alexandrina Maria da Costa, deceased in 1955, with fame of holiness and known across the country as the “little saint of Balasar”. Balasar (aka Balazar) is a Portuguese parish of the council of Póvoa de Varzim, with an area of 11,57 km2and 2 543 inhabitants (2011). Density: 219,8 i/km2.

Alexandrina de Balasar Foundation

“Because I want that soon after your death your life be known, and so it will be, I will make it so. It will reach the confines of the world. I want everything to be known, so that everyone can see how I communicate to the souls that want to love Me”. (Words of Jesus to Alexandrina de Balasar, 20/11/1937).

This is the purpose of the Sanctuary’s site and the Alexandrina de Balasar Foundation in honor of Blessed Alexandrina. Her Message for the Glory of God, and honor and praise to Blessed Alexandrina. Alexandrina de Balasar writes, in a letter to Father Mariano Pinho, what Jesus told her on the 20th of November of 1937:

«My good and dear Father, on the 20th , Our Lord told me:

“My daughter, My jewel, My Golden, most richest safe of the Most Holy Trinity. Most richest because you have in you these Divine figures. If you knew how much you are loved by them! My daughter, I only tell you about greatness and the love I have for you because it is good for the souls. Because I want that soon after your death your life be known, and so it will be, I will make it so. It will reach the confines of the world, just as the voice of the Pope consecrating the world to my dear Mother. I want everything to be known, so that everyone can see how I communicate to the souls that want to love Me”. (Letter to Father Mariano Pinho; 22/11/1937)