María de la Purísima Salvat Romero

On December 8, 1944, the feast day of the Immaculate Conception, María Isabel entered as a postulant into the Company of the Cross (Hermanas de la Compañía de la Cruz) in Seville. This congregation, founded in the 19th century by Saint Angela of the Cross, is entirely dedicated to the service of the most destitute, the sick in their homes, and orphans. On June 9, 1945, she took the religious habit and received the name Sister María de la Purísima de la Cruz (Mary of the Most Pure of the Cross). She pronounced her temporary vows on June 27, 1947, and her perpetual vows on December 9, 1952.

Recognized for her solid intellectual formation (she mastered French, English, and Italian) and her spiritual qualities, she was entrusted with various responsibilities. She was successively superior and school director in the houses of Lopera, Valladolid, Estepa, and Villanueva del Río y Minas. In 1966, she was recalled to the Mother House in Seville to become mistress of novices, before being appointed provincial in 1969, and then general councilor in 1970.

On February 11, 1977, she was elected Mother General of the Company of the Cross. She would be unanimously re-elected three times (in 1983, 1989, and 1995), exercising this office of government for nearly 22 years until her death. At the head of the institute, she strove to faithfully preserve the charism of poverty and humility bequeathed by the foundress, while adapting the congregation's constitutions to the orientations of the Second Vatican Council. She watched with particular care over the spiritual formation of her sisters during a period of post-conciliar crisis and confusion. Despite her heavy administrative responsibilities, she made it a point to personally serve the poor and the sick every morning, washing their wounds, cleaning their clothes, and preparing their food.

In 1994, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She underwent surgery and faced the illness for four years with heroic patience and total docility to the will of God. She passed away piously on October 31, 1998, at the Mother House in Seville.

The cause for beatification officially opened after obtaining the nihil obstat decree from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on January 13, 2004. The diocesan inquiry into her heroic virtues was conducted in Seville that same year. On January 17, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI signed the decree recognizing the heroic nature of her virtues, conferring upon her the title of Venerable.

The miracle required for her beatification concerns the healing of a four-year-old girl, Ana María Rodríguez Casado, from La Palma del Condado (Huelva). Born with a severe congenital heart defect and without an inferior vena cava, she had worn a pacemaker since the age of 13 months. In 2004, the rupture of a pacemaker lead caused a prolonged cardiorespiratory arrest, leading to pulmonary edema and severe neurological sequelae (Stokes-Adams syndrome). Sent home in a vegetative state, her family began a novena to Mother María de la Purísima and placed an image of the religious sister on her head. The little girl recovered completely, rapidly, and in a scientifically inexplicable manner. This miracle was officially approved by Benedict XVI on March 27, 2010.

The beatification ceremony was celebrated on September 18, 2010, at the La Cartuja Olympic Stadium in Seville. It was presided over by Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, representing Pope Benedict XVI, in the presence of more than 45,000 faithful. The second miracle, necessary for canonization, was the healing of Francisco José Carretero Díaz (nicknamed "Carre"), a member of the Macarena brotherhood in Seville. In September 2012, at the age of 43, he suffered a prolonged cardiorespiratory arrest of more than 25 minutes due to dilated cardiomyopathy, plunging him into a deep coma with brain damage deemed irreversible. While doctors considered withdrawing life support and harvesting organs, his relatives and members of his brotherhood launched a prayer chain asking for the intercession of Blessed María de la Purísima. After 12 days in a coma, he suddenly woke up and recovered completely without any sequelae. Pope Francis officially approved this second miracle on May 5, 2015. The solemn canonization was celebrated by Pope Francis on October 18, 2015, in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, in the presence of numerous Sisters of the Company of the Cross. She thus became one of the most rapidly canonized saints in contemporary history (only 17 years after her death), surpassed only by Saint John Paul II.

The spirituality of Saint María de la Purísima is deeply marked by the theology of the Cross and the spirit of self-effacement ("non-being") characteristic of her congregation. She liked to repeat: "In the house of God, there are no low offices, all are high" and "Of that which is little, little," testifying to a radical love for evangelical poverty. Her daily life was characterized by a constant union with God in prayer and contemplation, from which she drew the strength to give herself entirely to the poorest.

Her legacy lies in the preservation and revitalization of the charism of Saint Angela of the Cross during a time of profound ecclesial and social change. Her relics rest today in the chapel of the Mother House in Seville, alongside the incorrupt body of the holy foundress.

Initially set for October 31 (the day of her death), her liturgical feast was officially transferred to September 18 by the Congregation for Divine Worship in 2015, at the request of the Archbishop of Seville and the congregation, in order to avoid liturgical competition with the eve of All Saints' Day and to commemorate the day of her beatification.