Carmen Elena Rendiles Martínez

After her formation, Carmen Rendiles returned to Venezuela where she assumed government responsibilities within the Servants of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. In 1945, she was appointed superior of all the houses of the congregation in Venezuela, deploying intense educational and pastoral activity, with the foundation of schools and communities. When the French branch of the institute evolved toward a new form, Carmen Rendiles, at the head of the houses in Venezuela and Colombia, requested separation. On March 25, 1965, she thus founded the autonomous congregation of the Servants of Jesus of Caracas (Siervas de Jesús). This new congregation received diocesan approval on August 14, 1969, granted by Cardinal José Humberto Quintero Parra, Archbishop of Caracas. Carmen Rendiles remained its superior general, re-elected until her death. Under her government, the institute dedicated itself to Eucharistic adoration, Christian education, service to the poor and the sick, as well as the support of priests and priestly vocations. The congregation continued to grow after her death, counting several dozen religious sisters spread across communities in Venezuela and Colombia.

The spirituality of Carmen Rendiles was rooted in Eucharistic adoration, the heart of her congregation's life, and in the joyful acceptance of suffering. She made her infirmity not an obstacle but a path of identification with Christ, living her disability in silence and abandonment. Testimonies describe her governing with wisdom, generosity, and gentleness, attentive to each of her sisters and concerned for the support of priests, in whom she saw the face of Christ. She sought to be a maternal and wise counselor, and her desire for holiness was explicit. According to the sources of the cause, she is said to have stated: "I want to be a saint. I want to say like Saint Paul: it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." Her reputation for holiness, already perceptible during her lifetime, was confirmed after her death, described by sources as a death "in the odor of sanctity." Venezuela preserved the memory of a humble and prayerful religious, entirely given to God and to the service of the poorest, whose example inspired the opening of her cause for beatification.

The cause of Carmen Rendiles was introduced and she received the title of Servant of God in 1994, under the pontificate of John Paul II. On July 5, 2013, Pope Francis recognized the heroic nature of her virtues, declaring her venerable. A first miracle attributed to her intercession—the healing of a female doctor whose arm had been severely damaged by an electric shock that occurred during an operation—was recognized, paving the way for her beatification, which was celebrated in Caracas on June 16, 2018, and presided over, in the name of Pope Francis, by Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. A second miracle was subsequently recognized: the healing of a woman diagnosed in 2015 with idiopathic triventricular hydrocephalus, who had fallen into a vegetative state, after her family prayed at the tomb of Mother Carmen. On March 31, 2025, Pope Francis approved the decree recognizing this miracle. The canonization took place on October 19, 2025, in Saint Peter's Square in Rome, presided over by Pope Leo XIV, at the same time as that of the physician José Gregorio Hernández, making them the first two saints canonized from Venezuela. Her liturgical feast is set for May 9.

The legacy of Carmen Rendiles continues first and foremost in the congregation of the Servants of Jesus of Caracas, which she founded and which carries on her charism of Eucharistic adoration, Christian education, and service to the poor, the sick, and priests, both in Venezuela and in Colombia. Her canonization, celebrated jointly with that of José Gregorio Hernández, was experienced by Venezuelans as a moment of national unity and hope, in a difficult economic and political context: thousands of pilgrims made the journey to Rome and millions followed the ceremony. As the first woman from Venezuela raised to the honors of the altars through canonization, she appears as a figure of identification for people living with a disability, having gone through life without a left arm while leading an intense apostolic life. Her liturgical memorial is celebrated on May 9, the day of her birth into heaven. Her tomb, in Caracas, remains a place of prayer, and her example of simplicity, inner strength, and self-giving continues to inspire consecrated life and the faithful of her country.