Sebastià Gili Vives was born in 1811 in Su Carbona (Artà), the third son of the farmers Miquel Gili y Literas and Antònia Vius y Artigas.
Educated as a Christian, in 1826 he began to study at the “Luliana” University in Majorca. He obtains a scholarship to study at the seminary and begins in 1830, the year his father dies.
On 4th April 1835 he was ordained a priest; he was sent to the parish of San Jaime in Palma de Mallorca, where he arrived on 2nd July 1835.
From 1844 to 1866 he was administrator, prior and director of the Hospice and Inclusa de Palma, where there were 250 foundlings; he also directed the General Hospital and the Casa de Misericordia.
In 1858 he became an Augustinian Tertiary and worked to found a religious congregation: on 4th December he published the statutes of the Sisters of Empar Tertiaries of St. Augustine, who were to dedicate themselves to charity and care for the sick and needy, in hospices and *incluses.
On 6 February 1859, four sisters began the life of the community. In 1860, the congregation took over the former convent of Sus Judías, Augustinian nuns in what is now Josep María Quadrat square, and took charge of the hospital in Palma, as well as caring for the sick at home.
In 1863, they also took charge of the Casa de la Misericordia. On 8 April 1864, the bishop of Mallorca appoints Gili superior of the congregation, which is growing. In 1865, they began to run a school, also entering the field of education.
In 1867, the Chapter Vicar and the Junta Municipal de Beneficencia of Ibiza requested the services of the Augustinian sisters in the hospital of Ibiza. Once permission was granted, Sebastià Gili moved with four sisters and set up a community in Ibiza on 2 September 1868.
In 1875 he inaugurated the Colegio de la Virgen de la Consolación.
On 30th July 1883, Gili was appointed canon of Palma Cathedral, a post he combined with that of superior of the congregation until 1893, when, due to his age, he resigned as superior and was succeeded by the priest Francisco Arrom.
Retired in Artà, he died on 11th September 1894.
The Congregation wants to be this land that is prepared for sowing, that opens up with the pain of the coulter, to welcome the seed with confidence from the hand of the sower; to close itself with the seed welcomed and to assimilate it in the depths of its yes; it is land that knows how to wait patiently during the harshness of winter and allows itself to be fertilised by the grace of prayer.
In the past, the Balearic Islands were a “hotbed of vocations to the consecrated life” and several Congregations were born in the 19th century, among them the *Augustine Sisters of the Amparo.
In the second half of the 18th century, a change took place in the heart of the church in Mallorca, with the emergence of the first women’s charitable institutions, and new hospitals, hospices and charity houses were created and strengthened; the royal house of foundlings was founded, and the presence of some women’s congregations became relevant.
With very clear ideas, D. Sebastián *Gili Vives decided to found a religious congregation. In advance of the times, he understood that the same young *exposites trained at the *Inclusa should not be excluded from this model Congregation, and with these same selected young people, he began the trial of the project of the Congregation. 6 February saw the real installation of the Congregation at the *Inclusa in Palma. Four women of great mettle, great piety, restless and concerned for others took on the ideal of life that moved D. Sebastian and laid the foundations of the work by taking the habit and strap. Everything was completed with the letter of brotherhood granted to the Congregation by Fr. Arnau, Apostolic Commissary of the Order of St. Augustine. The Sisters of the Amparo were born, * Augustinian on all four sides, because they dedicated themselves body and soul to the complete care of these creatures. It was here that D. Sebastián laid the foundations of the great building that was beginning to be constructed. And so the Congregation began.
The religious spirit that animated the sisters, their self-denial, their acts of extraordinary charity with which they cared for the foundlings and their fervent apostolate attracted the attention of many young women who, sensing a religious vocation, asked for and obtained admission to the Congregation. Once again, we see the tireless worker, who is also at the helm of the Congregation, not an easy task in the early days.
Vocations quickly began to come from all walks of life, some even from the same social class who saw in this humble priest a man of God and wanted to imitate him.
He left to us, above all, the maternal care of abandoned children, attending with tenderness and patience to their needs; the care of the sick, lavishing services and consolation on them, mitigating their pain with the sweetness of our words; the zeal to inculcate the good and to separate the poor from evil, dispensing to them all the cures that their misery demands, and the teaching of Christian doctrine and other branches of knowledge, will be perennial sources of charity, for the religious is an angel that God sends to earth to pour the balm of consolation on all kinds of sorrows and bitterness; the religious is not afraid to cross the sea, nor is she afraid of the work to carry whatever it may be. On the wings of charity she flies wherever her ministry calls her.
Impregnated with the doctrine of St. Augustine, they started with simplicity and heroic generosity a work that began in Mallorca, Ibiza and later in the Peninsula, to finally make the leap to Italy, Peru, Costa Rica, Honduras and Nicaragua. All the communities were organised around two main axes: the school where comprehensive training is provided and the provision of health services. The Founder was able to instil in his daughters this passion for searching and the Congregation continued his work. The foundation of the Sisters of Amparo was founded according to the parameters of a modern congregation.
Once the foundation was made, D. Sebastián was able to give it a characteristic stamp through his advice and writings. From the beginning he wanted them to be called *Augustines, because he was an *Augustinian of the choir, although as a secular priest, he did not profess the Rule of St. Augustine nor did he live in community. Its secret lay in the clear-sightedness of the aims of the Institute and also in the requirement and fidelity to the rules established for it. In his dealings with the Sisters and in his correspondence with them, he asked them first of all for an interior fidelity of the choir, but also for a love of the rules and an exterior fidelity, indispensable for the good running of the community.
The Congregation was formed in the Augustinian school of love of God and charity towards the needy. In the Rule it is stated that the pious exercises of the Sisters are to be mainly works of charity. The Founder gave them some particular ordinances, by means of which he knew how to instil in them a much *born piety, having the need to communicate his love to others.
Out of charity she founded the Congregation, they endured hardships and labours and offered their lives; 38 sisters worked in the hospital, foundling house and private homes during the cholera. Three of them sealed their lives in those days, martyrs of selfless love for their faces.
The Congregation of *Agustinas del Amparo was born out of the imperious need that D. Sebastián felt, to reach out to where the lack of charity urged him. And the *Inclusa lacked any human warmth and affection for the people who lived there, he felt limited in being able to reach out to all those who needed his help.
An admirer and devotee of St. Augustine, he turned his eyes towards him, so that as the sun of the Church he could project his light on the urgent need that was distressing him, and from the same Augustinian sap the Congregation of the Sisters of Amparo was born. The founder was at the head of it, until old age and sickness took over and the bishop retired him, making the Sisters true daughters of charity.
