María Maravillas de Jesús

The work of Saint María Maravillas de Jesús is inseparable from the foundation and restoration of numerous Discalced Carmelite monasteries, striving to keep the original spirit of the Theresian reform alive within them. Even before her solemn profession (pronounced on May 30, 1924), she received a spiritual inspiration calling her to found a Carmel at the Cerro de los Ángeles (Hill of the Angels), considered the geographical center of the Iberian Peninsula, where a monument dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus stands. On May 19, 1924, she moved temporarily to Getafe with three companions to oversee the construction site. The monastery was officially inaugurated on October 31, 1926, and she was appointed prioress by the Bishop of Madrid-Alcalá. Faced with a rapid influx of vocations, she founded a Carmel in 1933 in Kottayam, in the state of Kerala, India, sending eight nuns there. During the religious persecution that struck Spain, the community was expelled from its convent on July 22, 1936. The sisters were first placed under surveillance with the Ursulines of Getafe for fourteen months, then took refuge in an apartment on Claudio Coello Street in Madrid. Threatened with death by armed militiamen, Mother Maravillas responded with heroic peace: "We are not afraid; we desire to give our lives for the Lord." In 1937, she managed to flee Madrid with her sisters, passed through Lourdes, and returned to Spain to settle in the former disused monastery of Las Batuecas (Salamanca), which she restored. In 1939, once the Civil War had ended, she returned to the Cerro de los Ángeles to rebuild the desecrated and ruined monastery. She then multiplied the foundations of Carmels in Spain: Mancera de Abajo (1944), Duruelo (1947), Cabrera (1950), Arenas de San Pedro (1954), San Calixto (1956), Aravaca (1958), La Aldehuela (1961), and Montemar (1964). At the request of the bishops, she also restored major historical sites of the Carmel, notably the Carmel of the Escorial and the Monastery of the Incarnation in Avila. In order to unite, support, and preserve the Theresian spirit of her foundations in the face of post-conciliar reforms, she founded the Association of Saint Teresa, approved by the Holy See in 1972. Although living in strict enclosure, she deployed a large-scale social work from the Carmel of La Aldehuela: she had a school built for poor children, a clinic, and an entire neighborhood of housing (more than 200 homes) to rehouse the destitute families of the region.

Mother Maravillas de Jesús led a life of rigorous asceticism, marked by long vigils of prayer. Starting in 1931, to spiritually watch over the monument of the Sacred Heart threatened with desecration, she imposed upon herself to sleep only three hours a night, sitting on the floor. She benefited from exceptional mystical graces that she strove to hide from everyone, except her spiritual directors. She passed away peacefully on December 11, 1974, at the Carmel of La Aldehuela, uttering these final words: "What happiness to die a Carmelite!". At the time of her death, many witnesses reported that a persistent scent of lilies and spices emanated from her remains. Her cause for canonization progressed at an exceptionally rapid pace due to her reputation for holiness and the miracles attributed to her intercession. The first miracle concerns the instantaneous and scientifically inexplicable healing, which occurred in 1976, of a young Spanish girl, Alfonsa García Blázquez, who was suffering from primary agranulocytosis. The second miracle concerns the healing that occurred in July 1998 in Nogoyá (Argentina) of little Manuel Vilar, an 18-month-old infant who had fallen into a pool of stagnant water. Found in prolonged cardiorespiratory arrest and plunged into a deep coma, he was suddenly healed without any aftereffects after his parents invoked the intercession of Mother Maravillas, who had just been beatified.

She was beatified on May 10, 1998, in Saint Peter's Square in Rome by Pope John Paul II. She was canonized on May 4, 2003, by Pope John Paul II during his apostolic visit to Madrid (Spain), at the Plaza de Colón, before more than a million faithful. During his homily, the Pope declared: "Saint Maravillas de Jesús lived animated by a heroic faith, formed through an austere vocation, placing God at the center of her existence."

The spirituality of Saint María Maravillas de Jesús is rooted in absolute abandonment to the divine will, summarized by her constant motto: 'What God wants, as God wants, when God wants.' She lived a deep mystical union with the crucified Christ, seeking to efface herself completely to let divine mercy act. Her legacy remains alive through the numerous monasteries she founded or restored in Spain and India, which continue to observe the Teresian rule in all its rigor and joyful poverty. The Association of Saint Teresa perpetuates this spiritual fidelity. Furthermore, her charitable foundations (schools, social housing) testify to her conviction that the highest contemplation must be translated into active charity attentive to human distress.