Rafaela Veintemilla Villacis

In Lima, Rafaela continued her life of piety and became actively involved in parish works. She enrolled in the Confraternity of the Rosary at the Church of Saint Dominic, of which she became the president. In 1894, she met Father Eustasio Esteban, a Spanish priest of the Order of Saint Augustine (OSA) who had recently arrived in Peru. Under his spiritual direction, she discerned a call to found a new religious family. In 1895, she separated from her family to move into a modest apartment and founded the Congregation of the Augustinian Daughters of the Most Holy Savior (Religiosas Agustinas Hijas del Santísimo Salvador), in collaboration with Father Eustasio Esteban. She then adopted the religious name Rafaela de la Pasión ("Rafaela of the Passion"). The institute's primary mission was the "Holy Work of Preservation" (Santa Obra de la Preservación), which consisted of welcoming, feeding, instructing, and protecting young girls and children in situations of extreme poverty and moral danger. The sisters of the congregation adopted the Rule of Saint Augustine and were distinguished by a life of simplicity, dressed in black with a crucifix on their chest and a rosary at their waist. Despite material difficulties, misunderstandings, and slander, the foundress maintained the work with firmness and devotion.

After a whole life dedicated to the service of the most destitute and to prayer, Rafaela de la Pasión died holily in Lima on November 25, 1918, at the age of 82. Her mortal remains were first buried in the garden of the convent of Nuestra Señora del Prado in Lima on August 28, 1980. Thirty-five years later, on November 23, 2015, they were transferred to the church of Nuestra Señora de la Consolación, located in the Rímac district of Lima.

The cause for the beatification and canonization of Rafaela de la Pasión was introduced in the diocese of Lima. On February 6, 1987, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints granted the nihil obstat for the opening of the diocesan inquiry. The diocesan inquiry was officially opened on March 30, 1987, and closed on April 6, 1989. The decree of validity for the diocesan inquiry was signed on March 6, 1992. The Positio on her heroic virtues was submitted to Rome in 2001. On November 7, 2018, Pope Francis authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing her heroic virtues, thereby declaring her venerable.

The spirituality of the Venerable Rafaela de la Pasión is deeply rooted in the Augustinian tradition, centered on the search for God in community, fraternal love, and union with Christ. It is also characterized by an intense devotion to the Passion of the Lord, the Eucharist, and the Virgin Mary. Her legacy endures through the Congregation of the Augustinian Daughters of the Most Holy Savior, which continues to work in Peru and other countries for the education and protection of disadvantaged children and youth, faithful to the charism of its founder.