Candida María de Jesús (†1912)

Biography

Her profession since adolescence was that of a domestic worker. At the age of 26, with five companions, she founded the Congregation of the Daughters of Jesus in Salamanca. It is said that Mother Candida's greatest miracle was founding a religious congregation for the education of children and youth, who barely knew how to read and write. From a very young age, at the marriage proposal made by her father, she uttered a phrase that would guide her entire life: “I only for God” and when she was dying she was able to say: “I am dying very peacefully, 41 years of religious life and I do not remember a moment that was not for God.” This is how he spent his life of work, crosses, joys and sorrows, with constant scarcity of resources and in permanent familiarity with God.