March 20
María Josefa del Corazón de Jesús Sancho de Guerra (1842–1912)
Religious
Practical advice
As an offering to the Lord, meditate for a few minutes on a scene from the Gospel in which Mary appears and also take care of the small details.
Biography
Born in Vitoria, Spain, she professed as a nun with the Servants of Mary, but the Lord made her see that He wanted something more from her and she left the convent with two other companions to found in Bilbao the religious institute of the Servants of Jesus of Charity, dedicated to the care of the sick. In her forty years as superior general of this Congregation, María Josefa traveled from end to end of Spain, founding new communities. Its last foundation, the most arduous since it included the leap across the Atlantic to take its nuns to America, was in Chile. She died shortly after in Bilbao and everyone was sure that a saint had died. An immense crowd, which the house could not contain, came asking to see “our mother,” venerating her from that moment on. On October 1, 2000, María Josefa Sancho was canonized by His Holiness. John Paul II.