The Religious Family of the Incarnate Word
Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matara
On March 19, 1988, the feast of Saint Joseph, Father Carlos Miguel Buela founded the Institute Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará (Servidoras del Señor y de la Virgen de Matará; SSVM), the female branch of the Religious Family of the Incarnate Word.
The founder’s purpose was the “desire to give spouses to Jesus Christ according to his Heart”, and the occasion came when some women expressed their will to consecrate themselves to God, living the spirituality of the IVE. As Saint John Paul II wrote in his letter Mulieris dignitatem on the dignity of women: Women, called from the very “beginning” to be loved and to love, in a vocation to virginity find Christ first of all as the Redeemer who “loved until the end” through his total gift of self; and they respond to this gift with a “sincere gift” of their whole lives. (20)
The sisters take their name from the Cross of Matará, a wooden cross made by an Indian after having learned the catechism from the missionaries in Santiago del Estero, Argentina. This cross, which is the oldest known in the territory of present-day Argentina and was on the cover of the Argentine Missal, also became a symbol and part of the habit of our sisters to remember that we want to know nothing … except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified (1 Cor 2,2).
