Isabel Sánchez Romero

Within her monastery, Sister Ascensión de San José led a humble, silent, and laborious life. Due to her fragile health and chronic wounds, she was admitted as a "sister of obedience" (or coadjutor sister), which exempted her from certain rigorous communal choral obligations. She dedicated herself fully to the service of her sisters, always showing herself available to assist them in daily tasks. For many years, she served as the "tornera" (turn sister or portress) of the convent, maintaining the link with the outside world with great kindness and a simplicity that left an impression on visitors. Her spiritual life was centered on deep contemplation, intense prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, and a filial devotion to the Virgin Mary. In July 1936, the Spanish Civil War broke out, triggering a violent religious persecution. On August 4, 1936, faced with threats from republican militias, the fourteen nuns of the Huéscar monastery were forced to flee and disperse the community. The convent was looted. Sister Ascensión found refuge in her hometown at the home of her niece, Ascensión Reche, and her husband, Alfredo Motos.

Despite the dispersion and constant danger, Sister Ascensión continued her life of prayer in hiding. On February 16, 1937, as the persecution intensified in Huéscar, Republican militiamen burst into the house where she was hidden. They arrested her brutally, considering the fact that she wore a crucifix around her neck a sufficient crime. Taken to the dungeons of the Huéscar town hall, the 75-year-old nun suffered severe abuse. Her jailers tormented her to try to make her utter blasphemies and renounce her faith. Sister Ascensión categorically refused and responded to their insults with short prayers (ejaculations). She was then savagely beaten and left half-dead on the floor, bathing in her own blood. The next morning, February 17, 1937, the militiamen decided to transport her by truck to the municipal cemetery with other prisoners. Too weak to climb in on her own due to her injuries and age, she was thrown violently into the back of the vehicle. Upon arriving at the gates of the cemetery, the prisoners were shot one by one before her eyes, including her own nephew, Florencio. The executioners demanded one last time that she blaspheme to save her life, but she persisted in her refusal. The militiamen then placed her head on a stone and crushed her skull with another stone. Her last words were: "¡Viva Cristo Rey!" (Long live Christ the King!).

The cause for the beatification of Sister Ascensión de San José was introduced in the Diocese of Guadix. The diocesan inquiry opened on December 5, 1995, and closed on March 18, 1997. The decree of validity for the inquiry was promulgated by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on February 19, 1999. On December 11, 2019, Pope Francis authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing her martyrdom in odium fidei (in hatred of the faith). Initially scheduled for 2020 but postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the beatification ceremony was celebrated on June 18, 2022, in the Cathedral of Seville by Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, representing Pope Francis. Sister Ascensión was beatified as part of a group of 27 Dominican martyrs of the Spanish Civil War, of whom she is the only woman.

The spirituality of Blessed Isabel Sánchez Romero is marked by a heroic acceptance of suffering, lived in union with the Passion of Christ. Her long illness, endured without complaint, was for her an interior preparation for the total gift of her life during martyrdom. Her absolute refusal to blaspheme, even under the cruelest torture, testifies to an unwavering fidelity to the Gospel and an unfailing love for Christ the King. Her relics, initially buried in the Huéscar cemetery, were transferred in 1958 to a municipal niche, then in 1973 to the Dominican monastic cemetery of Huéscar. Today, they are piously preserved and venerated at the Dominican Monastery of the Holy Trinity in Baza, in the province of Granada. Her liturgical feast is set for February 17, the day of her birth into Heaven.