Justa Domínguez de Vidaurreta e Idoy

On June 1, 1895, Justa began her postulancy at the Civil Hospital of Pamplona under the direction of Sister Cristina Sarasa Arrarás, before joining the seminary in Madrid. She took her first vows on September 8, 1900. Appointed director of the Seminary of the Daughters of Charity in Spain in 1922, she became Visitator (provincial superior) on July 24, 1932, leading more than 8,300 religious sisters. She founded numerous social works in Madrid (soup kitchens, free schools, associations). During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), she supported her sisters in the face of persecution, experiencing life in hiding and imprisonment. After the war, she rebuilt the destroyed works, relaunched the seminary, and encouraged international missions (India, Cuba, Philippines).

Sister Justa passed away on December 18, 1958, in Madrid at the age of 83. Her reputation for holiness spread rapidly. The diocesan informative process for her beatification opened in Madrid on November 12, 1991, and closed on December 2, 1993. The validity of the inquiry was decreed by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on November 25, 1994, and the Positio super virtutibus was officially submitted in Rome on September 27, 2001, the feast day of Saint Vincent de Paul.

On April 14, 2018, Pope Francis authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing the heroic nature of her virtues, conferring upon her the title of Venerable. An alleged miracle is currently under study at the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. It concerns the unexplained healing in 1972, at the Auxilio Mutuo Hospital in San Juan, Puerto Rico, of Sister Prudencia Zuazo Bujanda, who had invoked her intercession. The diocesan inquiry into this miracle took place in Puerto Rico in October 1994, and the documents have been under examination in Rome since May 1995.

The spirituality of Justa Domínguez is based on the Vincentian charism, summarized by her motto: 'The charity of Christ crucified urges us.' Her life bears witness to an absolute trust in Providence, a joyful charity, and a profound spirit of reconciliation and forgiveness after the Civil War. She leaves behind an immense spiritual and structural legacy: under her mandate as Visitator, the Spanish province of the Daughters of Charity experienced exceptional growth, numbering up to 11,500 sisters and 867 communities.