María Rafaela Rodríguez Xuarez De La Guardia

Desiring to dedicate herself to God since her adolescence, she initially faced opposition from her parents due to her gender and young age. However, in November 1944, at the age of 21, she entered the postulancy of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Love of God in Zamora. She received the religious habit on July 2, 1945, and took the name María Rocío de Jesús Crucificado. She pronounced her first temporary vows on July 19, 1947.

She was first sent as an educator to the college in Bullas, in the province of Murcia, where she distinguished herself by her dedication to children and the most destitute. In 1948, for health reasons, she was transferred to Salamanca. While teaching at a recently founded college, she enrolled in 1950 at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the University of Salamanca. It was in this city that she pronounced her perpetual vows on July 19, 1952.

In November 1952, she was sent to Rome with the mission of founding a new community of her congregation there and continuing her studies at the Maria SS. Assunta University Institute of Pedagogy. In Rome, she led a humble and devoted life, but contracted a serious pulmonary disease (tuberculosis). After long months of suffering lived in abandonment and spiritual joy, she died in Rome on March 30, 1956, at the dawn of Good Friday, at the age of 32.

Initially buried in the Roman cemetery of Campo Verano, her remains were transferred in 1965 to the tomb of her congregation, then definitively brought back to Spain on December 21, 2001. Her remains have rested since 2004 in the chapel of the founding house of the Sisters of the Love of God in Toro, in the province of Zamora.

The reputation of holiness of the young religious spread rapidly after her death. The first steps toward opening her cause for beatification began in 1968 in the diocese of Zamora. - June 25, 1988: Closing of the diocesan inquiry into the reputation of holiness and the virtues of the Servant of God. - November 17, 2000: The Congregation for the Causes of Saints declares the validity of the diocesan process. - November 23, 2012: Favorable opinion from the Congress of theologian consultors. - February 4, 2014: Ordinary session of the cardinals and bishops who pronounced positively on the heroism of her virtues.

On February 7, 2014, Pope Francis received in a private audience Cardinal Angelo Amato, 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. She was thus proclaimed Venerable. Her cause is currently awaiting the recognition of a miracle attributed to her intercession to pave the way for her beatification.

The spirituality of the venerable María Rocío de Jesús Crucificado is characterized by an intimate union with Christ the Spouse, a burning love for the Eucharist, and a filial devotion to the Virgin Mary. She lived her vocation in constant evangelical joy, always seeking to sow peace and love around her.

She often repeated this motto that summarized her life: "Toda de Jesús, solo de Jesús, siempre de Jesús" (All for Jesus, only for Jesus, always for Jesus).

On the day of her temporary profession, she wrote: "Se lo he dado todo a Él. Le he dicho que sí a todo y quiero seguir diciéndoselo siempre y decírselo sonriendo" (I have given Him everything. I have said yes to everything and I want to continue saying it to Him always, and to say it to Him smiling).

Facing illness and death, she showed absolute trust in divine mercy: "no tengo miedo a la muerte, el cielo me lo regalarán, porque no soy capaz de ganármelo aunque viva hasta el fin del mundo" (I am not afraid of death, heaven will be gifted to me, because I am not capable of earning it even if I lived until the end of the world).

Her spiritual legacy is today perpetuated by the Congregation of the Sisters of the Love of God, founded in the 19th century by the venerable Jerónimo Mariano Usera y Alarcón, which continues its educational and charitable work in many countries throughout the world.