Mother Adela Galindo: 40 years of 'fiat'

By Cristina Cabrera Jarro -

 

Photography: Cristi Cabrera, Emily Chaffins

DORAL| As a child in Nicaragua, Adela Galindo received her first Communion and made a promise to the Blessed Mother: to never say ‘No’ to her.

“I don’t know if I recommend that you do that promise because I still have to live by it every single minute of my life. Until the day I die, I will never say no to our Blessed Mother,” she told the congregation at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Doral on August 15, 2025, the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.

From that early promise, to her later consecration to the Lord at age 23—a private vow she made in jeans and a t-shirt while on a mission trip in the Dominican Republic with a youth group from Immaculate Conception Parish in Hialeah—she says her life has been an adventure.

“An adventure of love because love has so many things,” Galindo said, who for the past 40 years has been known as Mother Adela to the bilingual community of lay and religious brothers and sisters of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary—a congregation she founded in the Archdiocese of Miami in the 1990s.

Giving her “fiat” years ago, she didn’t know where it would lead. Like the Blessed Mother, she entrusted her life to God “with my mother [Mary] holding my hand and the light of Christ guiding my every step,” she said.

Our Lady’s plan

After returning from the 1985 mission trip where she made her vow, women from her prayer group at Immaculate approached her, saying they wanted to follow her example. Five of them, including Mother Adela, moved into a one car garage efficiency that became their home. There, they established rules, set a schedule for prayer, meals, and study while maintaining their day jobs and also serving in the Church. Unknowingly, they were laying the groundwork for a religious community.

Feeling it was time to formalize their efforts, Mother Adela approached then-Archbishop of Miami Edward A. McCarthy. In 1990, he approved their request to become a public association. She became the community’s spiritual mother, teacher, and leader.

“I never thought I was going to be called to be a foundress. I never gave my ‘Yes’ to be a foundress. I gave my ‘Yes’ to the will of God. And whatever that meant, it never crossed my mind that it was to found a religious order,” she said.

Even so, Mother Adela saw that it was the “Lord’s project and Our Lady’s plan.”

“It was their dream, and for me, that is the only dream I wish to have,” she said.

A growing community

As the community grew, Miami’s archbishops continued to help. In 1998, Archbishop John C. Favalora granted them permission to wear the habit, and in 2000 he declared the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary a Religious Institute of Diocesan Right. More recently, Archbishop Thomas Wenski, who has served the community for over 15 years, approved an upgrade to their constitution, and approved the formation of a male branch of brothers and priests.

“These three archbishops did something very important and crucial for the history of the Servants,” said Mother Adela.

Today, the community includes 80 professed sisters, novices, postulants, brothers, and one priest serving in dioceses across Florida, other U.S. states, Paraguay, Italy, Poland, and most recently Spain. A lay branch, established in 1999, includes hundreds of members.

"It is a joy for us in the Church of the United States and many other countries to see what the Lord has done with a simple ‘yes’ of a 23-year-old young woman,” said Archbishop Wenski at Mother Adela’s 40-year anniversary Mass.

The celebration drew 11 bishops, over 30 priests, two deacons, the Servants’ religious members, lay apostolate, and other guests—about 1,200 in total. Over 700 also watched via YouTube livestream.

Among the faithful was 14-year-old Mariana Mendoza, a member of the Young Apostles of the Servants from Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish. Introduced to the sisters at age three by her parents, who are part of the adult group of lay Apostles of the Pierced Hearts, Mariana appreciates how involved Mother Adela is.

“They’re very charismatic, and they teach us about religion,” she said. “Mother is a very nice person, and she loves everybody equally. She has taught us about God, and how to get closer to him.”

“She carries the Lord with her”

For Margarita Perez Batista from Our Lady of Divine Providence in Miami, Mother Adela has been both a spiritual and literal guide since they first met in 1993.

“I have encountered all of the Marian shrines with Mother, as well as those with Eucharistic miracles. I have learned a lot with her,” said Perez Batista.

On a visit to Ephesus, Turkey, believed to be the home of the Virgin Mary after Jesus’ death, Perez Batista went to the small house on a hill where the Blessed Mother lived.

“There, I prayed to the Virgin and asked that the houses and missions of the Servants be multiplied. And now, where do they not have houses?” Perez Batista said.

When asked what draws people to Mother Adela, Perez Batista simply replied: “It’s just that she carries the Lord with her. That is who she is.”

Looking at her 40 years of “fiat,” Mother Adela said she is grateful for all of her blessings.

“Through the joys, the struggles, the sufferings, and the founding of a religious community, it is truly a mystery—a mystery because it is entirely the work of God through an instrument who, in this case, was this very small servant, but who begins to open unimaginable and unforeseen chapters,” said Mother Adela.