Luz Rodríguez-Casanova y García San Miguel

The work of Luz Rodríguez-Casanova focused on the education of poor children and medical assistance to the underprivileged sick. In 1902, she opened her first small free schools for children in the poorest neighborhoods of Madrid, a work known as the "Obra de la Preservación de la Fe" (Work for the Preservation of the Faith). In 1910, she founded the "Patronato de Enfermos" (Patronage of the Sick), an institution intended to provide medical care, medicine, and spiritual support to the most destitute people.

Realizing that she could not carry out this immense task alone, she gathered a network of collaborators around her. This group gave birth to the Congregation of Damas Apostólicas del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús (Apostolic Ladies of the Sacred Heart of Jesus), a religious congregation of deep Ignatian spirituality. The Jesuit priest José María Rubio (now canonized) assisted her spiritually and participated in the drafting of the institute's first constitutions in 1918.

On February 24, 1926, Luz obtained the nihil obstat in Rome for the diocesan erection of her congregation. In 1927, the Bishop of Madrid-Alcalá authorized the establishment of the first community of Apostolic Ladies at the headquarters of the Patronato de Enfermos, located on Santa Engracia Street in Madrid. It was during this time that Luz Rodríguez-Casanova hired the young priest Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer (future founder of Opus Dei and saint) as chaplain of the Patronato de Enfermos, a position he held from 1927 to 1931.

Under the Second Spanish Republic, the work experienced considerable development: the Apostolic Ladies ran 66 schools educating approximately 12,000 children, while the Patronato de Enfermos treated more than 4,000 patients per year and distributed hundreds of daily meals.

After a life entirely given to the poor, Luz Rodríguez-Casanova died in Madrid on January 8, 1949. Her reputation for holiness led to the opening of her cause for beatification.

The diocesan informative process opened in Madrid on January 25, 1958, and closed on May 6, 1964. The validity of this process was decreed by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on December 11, 1967.

On December 1, 2016, Pope Francis received in audience the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing the heroic virtues of the Servant of God Luz Rodríguez-Casanova y García San Miguel. By this decree, she was officially declared Venerable by the Catholic Church.

The spirituality of Luz Rodríguez-Casanova is deeply marked by the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, which nurtured her faith since her adolescence. Her action is based on active and organized charity, refusing individualism and constantly seeking to create networks of solidarity. She liked to repeat that refusing to collaborate with others was "anti-apostolic".

Today, the congregation she founded, now known as the Apostólicas del Corazón de Jesús (Apostolic Sisters of the Heart of Jesus), continues its work of evangelization and social aid. Its communities are present not only in Spain, but also in several countries in Africa and Latin America, notably in Angola, Bolivia, El Salvador, Mexico, Peru, and the Dominican Republic. In Avilés, her hometown, a shelter for the homeless bears her name ("Casa de Acogida Luz Rodríguez Casanova"), managed by Cáritas.