By Father Jim Hazelton

My picture is of the first religious vocation from the parish of Santa Maria Visitacion, my first parish assignment in Guatemala. Her name is Maria Micaela Chiyal, a daughter of a very fine cathechist from Santa Clara la Laguna, the largest city in the parish. She is pictured with her mother and one of her sisters when she came to visit me on the feast of Santa Maria Visitacion, July 2, 1982.

Maria had expressed her desire to entire a religious order when she was about 17 years old. I tried to get her interested in a group that was being formed by an indigenous (native) sister friend of mine, but Maria did not want to wait. The Carmelite sisters working in the Diocese of Solola, our diocese, were able to accept her.

She took her early training in the diocese and served in some of its parishes. Three weeks after the picture was taken, I was enjoying my afternoon siesta when I was roused by a loud knocking at the door. Maria’s father entered my house. He shouted, “Maria has died—and in Tegucigalpa, Honduras! We have to go there!”

My first reaction was anger. What was she doing in Honduras when she should be working here in Guatemala with her people? Then I was deeply saddened when I saw the grief of her father and the Carmelite sister who had come to share the terrible news.

How was I going to go to Honduras with Maria’s father? But I agreed to accompany him and his brother and the sister to Guatemala City, to make the necessary arrangements.

It was such a sad trip.

When we arrived at the Carmelite motherhouse in Guatemala City, we found that I could fly to Honduras but the father could not because he and his brother lacked papers. I couldn’t (or wouldn’t) go by bus. We were discussing alternatives when a call from the sisters in Honduras informed us the Honduran airline, SASHA, had agreed to fly the body to Guatemala City. We waited until very late the same day for the body to arrive.

We had a wake in the convent, very late, and the next morning we started the long drive back to Santa Clara. When we arrived there, no one was expecting us because there were no phone connections in those days. The family came out to greet us and I was surprised that the mother went back into the house to bring me a drink of water before she even visited the remains of her daughter. What hospitality! Later the same day, we celebrated the funeral Mass. Maria was buried the following day.

Why did she die so young? I heard it might have been a heart defect. You might notice in the photo taken three weeks earlier, her hands are wrapped in her shawl, perhaps indicating her hands were cold even in that warm climate. I learned that she was taking nursing training in Honduras, to come back home to serve her people. I wondered why they might not have detected her health problem and given her treatment. I have the photo of Maria Micaela in my breviary. I won’t ever forget her and the small part I played in bringing her body home to her family.


Father Jim Hazelton was a diocesan missionary in Guatemala from 1964-2011. He lives in Helena.


Published in The Montana Catholic Online, Volume 27, No. 12, December 16, 2011.