Rafaela María Porras Ayllón (1850–1925)

Biography

After their parents died, Rafaela and her sister Dolores left for Córdoba to embrace the religious state. Although they entered the convent of Santa Cruz, at the end of a year they realized that God was asking them for a new foundation and with the help of the ecclesiastical governor of the diocese, the plan for this new foundation was outlined: an institute rooted in the Eucharist, with a special dedication to Eucharistic worship and committed, at the same time, to Christian education. Its name: Institute of the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. For more than thirty years he directed the Rafaela Institute with the support of his sister, and schools were founded in several cities. Then differences of opinion began, and Rafaela handed over the generalship to her sister, and then began the longest period of her life: almost thirty years, until her death, she lived in the shadows, but with extraordinary magnanimity, always vibrating with the life of the institute. Rafaela María died on January 6, 1925, and her passing was as silent as it was for most of her life, without solemn funerals or official representations. But, according to the general feeling, a saint had died. On January 23, 1977 she was canonized by H.H. Pius XII.