“Get used to listening to the voice of your heart. It is through it that God speaks to us and gives us the strength we need to move forward, overcoming the obstacles that arise on our path. Poverty will not be eradicated; God establishes the poor and the rich. However, we must make every possible effort to improve the situation. Misery is a lack of love among men.” – Sister Dulce
Sister Dulce
Maria Rita de Souza Brito Lopes Pontes (1914-1992) was born in Salvador, Bahia, on May 26, 1914. She was the daughter of Augusto Lopes Pontes, a dentist and professor at the Federal University of Bahia, and Dulce Maria de Souza Brito Lopes Pontes.
From a young age, Sister Dulce wished to pursue a religious life and prayed a lot, asking for a sign to show whether she should follow this path or not.
In her adolescence, she began to develop her mission of helping the homeless, the needy, and the sick.
Religious Formation
At 13, she was rejected by the Santa Clara convent for being too young. On February 8, 1932, she graduated as a primary school teacher, and the following year she joined the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God in São Cristóvão, Sergipe.
In 1934, Sister Dulce took her vows, becoming a nun and receiving the name Sister Dulce in honor of her mother. Back in Salvador, as a nun, her first mission was to teach at a school maintained by her religious congregation.
Sister Dulce’s Achievements
In 1936, at the age of 22, Sister Dulce founded the São Francisco Workers’ Union along with Brother Hildebrando Kruthaup. Sister Dulce is also credited with the creation of the Santo Antônio School, aimed at workers and their families.
Her participation in the establishment of a shelter for the sick, located at the Santo Antônio convent, was also significant. This space would later become the Santo Antônio Hospital.
Recognition
In 1980, during Pope John Paul II’s first visit to Brazil, Sister Dulce was invited to the altar and received a rosary from the Pope. She also heard the following words: “Continue, Sister Dulce, continue.”
In 1988, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by then President of Brazil José Sarney, with the support of the Queen of Sweden.
In 2000, she received the title of “Servant of God” from Pope John Paul II. She dedicated over 50 years to assisting the sick, the poor, and the needy.
Death
Sister Dulce began to experience respiratory problems and, despite her fragile health, did not stop her work. Already weakened, she was hospitalized at the Portuguese Hospital of Bahia, then transferred to the ICU of the Aliança Hospital, and finally to the Santo Antônio Hospital.
On October 20, 1991, Sister Dulce received a visit from Pope John 
Paul II to receive the blessing and the last rites.
Sister Dulce passed away in Salvador on March 13, 1992. Her remains are buried in the Chapel of the Santo Antônio Hospital.
Beatification
In October 2010, the Vatican confirmed a miracle attributed to the Bahian nun 
: the recovery of a woman who was given no hope after childbirth.
The beatification ceremony took place in Salvador on May 22, 2011, presided over by the Archbishop Emeritus of Salvador, Dom Geraldo Majella Agnelo, sent by Pope Benedict XVI.
As a second miracle was also verified, Sister Dulce received the decision to be canonized.
Recognition of the Second Miracle
On May 14, 2019, the Vatican recognized Sister Dulce’s second miracle, which will lead to her proclamation as a Saint, as reported by the Vatican. The miracle involved a blind person who asked Sister Dulce for help and woke up seeing.
Canonization
Pope Francis decided to canonize Sister Dulce during the Ordinary Public Consistory (meeting of cardinals). During the event, held in the Clementine Hall at the Vatican on July 1, 2019, Pope Francis chose to canonize the Brazilian nun after the verification of the two miracles.
The Sister Dulce Social Works
The Sister Dulce Social Works (OSID) were founded on May 26, 1959, with Saint Dulce of the Poor as its founder. The institution is the result of a journey of love and service and the persistence of the nun who wandered for over a decade in search of a place to shelter the poor and sick taken from the streets of Salvador. The roots of OSID date back to 1949 when the Sister, having nowhere to go with 70 sick people, asked her superior for permission to shelter the sick in a chicken coop next to the Santo Antônio Convent. This episode gave rise to the tradition that the largest hospital in Bahia was born from a simple chicken coop.
Currently, the philanthropic entity houses one of the largest 100% SUS health complexes in the country, with approximately 3.5 million outpatient procedures per year in Bahia, serving users of the Unified Health System (SUS), the elderly, people with disabilities and craniofacial deformities, homeless individuals, users of psychoactive substances, and children and adolescents in social risk situations. The organization has a unique service profile in the country, distributed across 21 centers that provide assistance to low-income populations in the areas of Health, Social Assistance, Scientific Research, Health Education, and the preservation and dissemination of the history of its founder.
Also known as the Roma Complex, the headquarters of the Works in Salvador encompasses, within its 40,000 square meters of built area, 20 of the 21 centers of the entity, including 954 hospital beds for the treatment of clinical and surgical pathologies. Of these centers, 19 operate in the field of Health, such as the Santo Antônio Hospital, Geriatric Center, Children’s Hospital, High Complexity Oncology Unit, Center for the Reception of Persons with Disabilities, and the Specialized Rehabilitation Center and the Center for the Reception and Treatment of Alcoholics. Annually, approximately 2.2 million outpatient procedures are recorded in the Roma Complex.
At the headquarters of the Social Works, which serves around 2,000 people daily, 12,000 surgeries are performed each year, in addition to 18,000 hospitalizations. Currently, more than 4,300 professionals work in the organization, with 2,800 employees solely in the capital’s complex, where 300 doctors and 300 volunteers also work.
Comprehensive, multidisciplinary, and humanized care is one of the characteristics of the services provided by the Sister Dulce Social Works. These actions cover the entire spectrum of health assistance and include primary care, 40 medical specialties, laboratory and bioimaging tests, hospitalization, high-complexity surgeries, and rehabilitation.
Also noteworthy is the Clinical Research Center and the Professor Adib Jatene Teaching and Research Center, units dedicated to the areas of Research and Health Education. As a teaching hospital, OSID also offers a medical internship and 19 residency programs, in addition to the Multidisciplinary Residency in Elderly Health Care and Residency in Dentistry.
Also in Salvador is the 20th OSID center, the Sister Dulce Memorial, a permanent exhibition about the life and legacy of the institution’s founder. Inaugurated in 1993, a year after the death of the Bahian nun, the center is located in a building annexed to the Santo Antônio Convent, at the headquarters of the Works. The visit to the memorial also extends to the Sanctuary of the Blessed Dulce of the Poor, located next to the OSID headquarters, where the tomb of the Good Angel of Bahia is found.
In the municipality of Simões Filho, in the Metropolitan Region of Salvador, the 21st center operates: the Santo Antônio Educational Center (CESA). The unit serves, in partnership with the State and Municipal Education Secretariats, 787 children and adolescents in situations of social vulnerability, offering full-time education from the first to the ninth grade (Elementary Education I and II), as well as access to arts education, digital inclusion, sports activities, dental assistance, free meals, uniforms, and school supplies. The location also has a sustainability unit, the Bakery Center, responsible for producing and selling various types of bread, panettones, and other products.
In addition to the centers belonging to the institution, OSID also manages external health units, currently responsible for the administration of three public complexes, all located in Bahia and linked to the State Government: Hospital do Oeste (Barreiras), Hospital Eurídice Sant’anna (Santa Rita de Cássia), and Hospital Regional Dr. Mário Dourado Sobrinho (Irecê). The entity is also responsible for the Sister Dulce dos Pobres Living Center, located in the Historic Center of Salvador, which focuses on assisting people in psychological distress and social vulnerability, including users of psychoactive substances and homeless individuals, as well as providing assistance to families residing in the neighborhood and clients referred by the SUS network.
To keep this great work alive, the institution relies on resources from the Unified Health System and agreements with state bodies, in addition to donations and product sales. Faithful to the mission inherited from Sister Dulce, “To Love and To Serve,” the organization has expanded its reach and professionalized without giving up its values. Its management is structured based on Strategic Planning and has accumulated awards and certifications such as ISO 9001:2015 (national reference for quality management system certification), Best NGO in the Northeast in 2018, Efficient Good, Top Social, Queen Sofia, and Queen Letizia.
Sources: 1) www.ebiografia.com, by Dilva Frazão, Bachelor in Library Science from UFPE and a teacher in elementary education. Since 2008, she has been working on writing and reviewing educational content for the web; 2) www.irmadulce.org.br