Saint María Soledad Torres y Acosta
Saint María Soledad Torres y Acosta was born on December 2 1826, and she died on October 11, 1887 – born. She was born Manuela, and was a Spanish Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Servants of Mary. Her apostolic actions and those of her order were dedicated to the nursing of the sick and the poor in the places where the order operated. She was so frail that she had difficulty joining a religious order. Saint María Soledad Torres y Acosta became a saint in 1970. Given that she is recent, have you ever heard of her?
Saint María Soledad Torres y Acosta Biography
Saint María Soledad Torres y Acosta was born on December 2, 1826, and she was the second of five children in her family. She was educated by the Vincentian Sisters and often visited the sick in her neighborhood. The girl also helped at a free school for the poor that the order managed. So, from an early age, she was already.
In about 1850, she felt called to enter a Dominican convent, but had to wait until there was room for her. In 1851, she envisioned founding a group of seven women who would minister to the sick and poor of his parish in their own homes since those people often could not afford proper hospitalization. Saint María Soledad Torres y Acosta very much wanted to do this. On August 15, 1851, she and her six companions committed their lives to this service as a religious group, and at that time she became a nun; she assumed the religious name of “María Soledad.”
The bishop examined Saint María Soledad Torres y Acosta and decided to reappoint her as the superior. Torres managed to continue her work with the help of her spiritual director Gabino Sánchez who was an Augustinian Recollect. The order was named the Servants of Mary. The dedication of the order was brought to the attention of the public after their notable and extensive care of the sick during the cholera epidemic in 1865.
Saint María Soledad Torres y Acosta faced several trials throughout her time of leadership. One example, she establisded a new group of the order in Valencia, where she faced the liberalizing government. The government took control of the entire empire in the Revolution of 1868 in Spain.
Saint María Soledad Torres y Acosta died from pneumonia on October 11, 1887. Her remains were buried in a simple plot around fellow religious of her order, but were exhumed and transferred to the chapel of the motherhouse on January 18, 1893. Her remains were deemed to be intact, and it was reported that her remains exuded a blood-like liquid and a sweet odor.
Saint María Soledad Torres y Acosta Cannonization
Two informative processes opened in Madrid for the collection of documentation in relation to the cause of Saint María Soledad Torres y Acosta’s of sainthood. Those documents would prove her saintliness while the theologians summoned to investigate her writings approved them on November 21, 1920.
Two miracles were required for her beatification and on April 24, 1942 those miracles were investigated. Both of the cadidate miracles were healings and they were approved on November 30, 1943. One miracle was the cure of Sister Lucia Santiago Allende on November 10, 1915 from grave tuberculosis and severe gastric complications. Paul VI canonized Saint María Soledad Torres y Acosta as a saint on January 25, 1970.
Conclusion
Saint María Soledad Torres y Acosta was a humble servent of God. She was the founder of a religious order that cared for the sick and the poor and still exists. When one thinks of the manifest good she did in her lifetime, and the fact that the good continues to this day, one is simply awestruck.
