María Berenice Duque

Ana Julia Duque Heckner – in religious María Berenice – was a Colombian Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Little Sisters of the Annunciation. Duque first entered the Dominican nuns in Bogotá in 1917 where she made her solemn profession after the completion of her novitiate period. It was after this that she spent the next three decades teaching children in various locations until she saw the plight of the poor and the minorities around her; she decided to establish a religious congregation that would cater to their needs and secured support from the Archbishop of Bogotá to achieve this.