Saint Rafqa's First Ordeal

Saint Rafqa’s life began with a great ordeal: the loss of her mother. It was a devastating blow for little Boutrossiyé who loved her mother immensely and saw in her the ideal of her life. The mother was at the centre of Boutrossiyé’s life and has sacrificed a lot for her dear and unique child. She was the spiritual and human tutor of her daughter.

Old houses in Himlaya, very similar to Saint Rafqa's family house

Unfortunately the mother passed away after a grave illness. It was a huge frustration for Boutrossiyé who became a seven years old orphan. She found herself cruelly alone and abandoned, it was a deep wound which affected all her life and caused her an incurable and lifetime pain. It was the great upheaval.

But even though her little age and the difficulties of life, Boutrossiyé accepted God’s will. She loved the Holy Virgin from the bottom of her little heart, her sorrow made her become attached more than ever to the Mother of God, who became her only mother.

This unfortunate death and the events that followed were the main reason behind the orientation of the little child towards monastic life. The World has become a place of suffering for her and she began to dream about heaven, where God will wipe every tear from her eyes, and where there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain.