Ángela de la Cruz

It was in prayer, on March 22, 1873, that Ángela received the decisive intuition of her vocation: contemplating the mystery of the Cross, she felt called to become "poor with the poor to lead them to Christ." On August 2, 1875, three young women joined her in a rented room on San Luis Street in Seville: thus was born the Company of the Cross, known as the Sisters of the Cross (Hermanas de la Cruz). The institute adopted an original way of life: the sisters lead a contemplative and poor life, but go out by day and by night to visit and care for the destitute sick free of charge, watch over the dying, and instruct young girls from disadvantaged backgrounds. The work spread rapidly from the first house founded in Utrera in 1877. The congregation received the pontifical decree of praise from Pope Leo XIII in 1898, then the definitive approval of Saint Pius X in 1904. Elected Superior General in 1907, Ángela de la Cruz directed the institute for many years; at the time of her death, the Company already counted numerous houses in Spain.

The spirituality of Ángela de la Cruz is entirely marked by the Cross, which she made the center of her life and the very name of her congregation. She developed an ideal of radical self-effacement, which she expressed in her writings through the meditation of "the nothing" (la nada): in her own words, "the nothing is silent, the nothing does not want to be, the nothing suffers everything [...]; the nothing in the creature is practical humility." This humility does not turn in on itself: it translates into a charity of "urgency" toward the marginalized, workers, homeless families, and the sick, lived in real and shared poverty. John Paul II, in his beatification homily, emphasized that she practiced "charity heroically" and understood the "science of the Cross" in depth, while remaining "immersed in paschal joy" despite the austerity of her existence. During her lifetime, the people of Seville already venerated her and nicknamed her the "mother of the poor." Her reputation for holiness, attested to by this popular devotion, led the Church to declare her venerable on February 12, 1976.

The beatification process for Ángela de la Cruz opened after her death; she was declared venerable by Pope Paul VI on February 12, 1976. John Paul II beatified her in Seville on November 5, 1982, during his first apostolic journey to Spain, before a considerable crowd; this was one of the first beatifications celebrated outside of Rome. The miracle accepted for the beatification was the healing, deemed scientifically inexplicable, of Concepción García Núñez, who was suffering from a severe form of tuberculosis. For the canonization, the Church recognized a second miracle: the sudden healing of the blindness in the right eye of a young boy, Teodoro Molina Navarro, due to an obstruction of the central retinal artery; the medical consultation of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints recognized its inexplicable nature, and the decree of canonization was promulgated on December 20, 2002. John Paul II canonized her on May 4, 2003, at the Plaza de Colón in Madrid, at the same time as several other Spanish figures, including Pedro Poveda and José María Rubio. Her liturgical feast is set for March 2, the day of her death.

The legacy of Ángela de la Cruz is perpetuated first through the Company of the Cross, which has spread far beyond Seville: the congregation is present in many regions of Spain as well as in Argentina and Italy, faithful to the original mission of free service to the poor, the sick, and disadvantaged children. A very popular figure in Andalusia, the saint has remained in the collective memory as the "mother of the poor" of Seville, and her funeral, in 1932, gathered an immense crowd that came to pay her tribute. Her body rests in the chapel of the motherhouse of the Sisters of the Cross, in Seville, where it is the object of continuous veneration; on the occasion of her canonization, her remains were exposed at the Cathedral of Seville before returning to the convent. Her liturgical memorial, celebrated on March 2, is particularly honored in the Archdiocese of Seville, of which she is one of the great modern spiritual figures, a witness to a charity rooted in evangelical poverty and in the contemplation of the Cross.