Maria Speranza della Croce

In 1930, responding to the call of Pope Pius XI, Msgr. Francisco Javier Ochoa Ullate, OAR, Apostolic Prefect of Kweitehfu (today Shangqiu, in the Henan province of China), traveled to Spain to seek contemplative nuns willing to commit to the missions. Sister Esperanza, animated by an ardent missionary zeal, volunteered alongside two other nuns (Sister Ángeles de San Rafael and Sister Carmela de San Agustín). They left Spain at the beginning of 1931. After a one-month stopover in Manila with the Augustinian Recollect Sisters of the Philippines, they arrived in Kweitehfu on May 19, 1931. The nuns first dedicated themselves to learning the Chinese language. They adapted their rule of enclosure to the missionary reality and deployed an intense apostolate: care for abandoned children (Holy Childhood), training of local catechists for the community of the "Catechists of Christ the King" (founded by Msgr. Ochoa), visits to the sick, and evangelization of neighboring villages. Sister Esperanza became the superior of this new community. In 1938, during the Sino-Japanese conflict, the Kweitehfu mission was bombed, forcing the missionaries to take refuge in Saint Joseph's Hospital. In 1940, the war forced them to leave China permanently. After a stay in the Philippines, Mother Esperanza returned to Spain. In 1941, she opened a novitiate house in Monteagudo to train future missionaries. Despite the impossibility of sending sisters back to China due to the Second World War, the community developed and founded new houses in Spain, Colombia (Bogota in 1945), and then in Brazil, Italy, Venezuela, and Argentina. On January 18, 1947, the congregation was officially erected as a congregation of diocesan right under the name Augustinian Recollect Missionaries of Mary (which would later become the Missionary Augustinian Recollects - MAR). Mother Esperanza was appointed first Superior General by the Holy See, a position in which she was confirmed for two successive terms. She led the institute with wisdom, ensuring that the poor were always assisted in all communities.

In 1962, stricken with cancer, Mother Esperanza submitted her resignation from her office as Superior General, which was accepted on April 11, 1962, by the Bishop of Pamplona. Despite the illness and her physical suffering, she carried out a final pastoral visit to the communities in Latin America in 1963. Upon returning to Spain, she participated in the third general chapter of the congregation in 1965 before retiring permanently to the house in Monteagudo. She spent her final months there in prayer and abandonment to the divine will, offering her sufferings in union with the Cross of Christ. She passed away peacefully on May 23, 1967, in Monteagudo, surrounded by a great reputation for holiness. Her funeral was experienced by witnesses in an atmosphere of profound mysticism.

Due to her enduring reputation for holiness, the cause for the canonization of Mother Esperanza was officially opened at the diocesan level in Pamplona on December 6, 1991. The diocesan process was closed on September 4, 1994. On December 5, 2009, her mortal remains were exhumed from the cemetery and solemnly transferred to the chapel of the motherhouse of the Augustinian Recollect Missionary Sisters in Monteagudo.

On December 14, 2015, Pope Francis authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing the heroic nature of her virtues, thereby conferring upon her the title of Venerable.

The spirituality of the Venerable Maria Speranza della Croce is deeply Eucharistic and marked by a theology of offering and reparation (victim spirituality). Her religious name, "Hope of the Cross," summarizes her life's program: to love the souls redeemed by the precious blood of Christ and to unite herself intimately with his redemptive sufferings. She was able to harmonize in a remarkable way the highest contemplation, acquired during her years of enclosure, with an indefatigable missionary zeal and concrete service to the most destitute.

Her legacy endures today through the congregation of the Augustinian Recollect Missionaries (MAR), present in many countries in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, who continue to live her dual charism of contemplation and missionary action.