Ángela Ginard Martí

At the age of 20, Ángela asked her parents for permission to enter the Hieronymite monastery of San Bartolomé in Inca. Her parents asked her to wait because her help was still essential at home. She accepted this decision with obedience and patience, while leading a life of intense prayer, punctuated by daily Mass, the recitation of the Rosary, and regular visits to the Blessed Sacrament.

On November 26, 1921, having finally obtained her parents' consent, she entered the postulancy of the Congregation of the Zealot Sisters of the Eucharistic Cult (Hermanas Celadoras del Culto Eucarístico) in Palma de Mallorca. This congregation, founded in 1902 by Canon Miguel Maura Montaner, is dedicated primarily to the perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and the making of hosts and liturgical vestments.

Upon her religious profession, she took the name Sister María de los Ángeles (Mary of the Angels). She adapted perfectly to this contemplative and active life, finding in Eucharistic adoration the strength necessary to accomplish her daily tasks: kneading bread for the hosts, embroidering sacred vestments, and preparing children for their First Communion.

After her novitiate and first vows, she was sent to the Madrid convent (located at 9 Blanca de Navarra Street) from 1926 to 1929. She was then transferred to Barcelona, before returning to Madrid in 1932, where she served as an advisor to the superior and as administrator of the community.

At the beginning of 1936, political tensions and religious persecution intensified in Spain. Sister María de los Ángeles spent long hours in prayer before the tabernacle, offering her life to God for the peace and salvation of her country. She encouraged her sisters to remain firm in the faith, repeating to them: "Do not worry. All they can do to us is kill us, nothing more."

On July 20, 1936, faced with the violence of the Spanish Civil War, the religious sisters were forced to abandon their convent. They dispersed and hid under civilian clothing. Sister María de los Ángeles found refuge with the Medina-Ariza family, in an apartment located on Monte Esquinza Street, right across from their convent. From her window, she witnessed helplessly the looting and destruction of her religious house and chapel by the militiamen.

On the evening of August 25, 1936, militiamen from the FAI (Iberian Anarchist Federation) burst into the apartment following a denunciation by the concierge. They first arrested the owner's sister. Seeing this innocent woman threatened, Sister María de los Ángeles came out of her room and courageously declared: "The woman you have seized is not a nun. I am the only nun here."

The militiamen released the other woman and arrested the sister. She was taken to the "checa" of Bellas Artes, a detention center of sinister memory. The following evening, August 26, 1936, she was taken to the Dehesa de la Villa, a park on the outskirts of Madrid, where she was shot in hatred of the faith.

The day after her execution, on August 27, 1936, her body was buried in a mass grave at the Almudena cemetery in Madrid. After the end of the Civil War, her remains were transferred to the pantheon of her congregation within the same cemetery. In 1985, as part of the opening of her cause for canonization, her relics were exhumed and placed in the chapel of the convent on Blanca de Navarra Street in Madrid.

The cause for beatification for martyrdom was officially opened at the diocesan level in Madrid on April 28, 1987, and closed on March 23, 1990. The decree recognizing the validity of the diocesan inquiry was published on October 18, 1991.

On April 19, 2004, Pope John Paul II approved the promulgation of the decree recognizing her martyrdom in odium fidei.

The beatification ceremony was celebrated on October 29, 2005, in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican. It was presided over by Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, representing Pope Benedict XVI. Her liturgical feast is set for August 26, the day of her birth into heaven.

The spirituality of Blessed María de los Ángeles Ginard Martí is deeply Eucharistic. Her entire religious life was shaped by silent adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, from which she drew her strength, her serenity, and her spirit of sacrifice. Her love for the Eucharist was accompanied by a great devotion to the Rosary and a particular admiration for the early martyrs of the Church, whose history she loved to read to her brothers and sisters during her youth.

Her spiritual legacy is perpetuated today through the religious institute to which she belonged. Due to the decline in vocations, the Congregation of the Zelatrices of the Eucharistic Cult merged on April 11, 2010, with the Congregation of the Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament and Mary Immaculate (founded by Blessed María Emilia Riquelme Zayas). This union has made it possible to preserve and foster their common charism centered on the love and adoration of Jesus-Eucharist.