María Consuelo Sanjurjo Santos

After her temporary profession, Sister María Soledad was sent on a mission to Cuba. She arrived in Manzanillo on December 17, 1913. She continued her initial formation in Santiago de Cuba starting August 11, 1917, and pronounced her perpetual vows there on April 30, 1921.

Within the congregation of the Servants of Mary, Sister María Soledad exercised numerous responsibilities with wisdom and dedication. She was first an bursar and superior of several communities in Cuba, notably in Matanzas (starting August 18, 1939) and Manzanillo, as well as in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In 1929, she was appointed secretary and provincial councilor of the congregation in Havana.

In 1950, she was elected provincial superior of the Antilles, becoming the first Puerto Rican to hold this office. Her mandate was marked by an exceptional missionary impetus to expand the work of the institute in the Caribbean: - On July 1, 1953, she founded the first house of the institute in the Dominican Republic, in Santo Domingo. - In 1954, she fulfilled one of her dearest wishes by opening a novitiate in Ponce, Puerto Rico, thus allowing young women from the region to be trained locally without having to cross the ocean to Madrid. - In 1957, she founded a second house in the Dominican Republic, in Santiago de los Caballeros. - Starting in 1958, she engaged the sisters in the service of the San Isidro military aviation hospital in Ciudad Trujillo (Santo Domingo).

In 1962, faced with political instability and tensions in Cuba and the Dominican Republic, she transferred the seat of the provincial curia from Cuba to Puerto Rico to ensure the safety of the sisters. She was appointed provincial superior for a third term that same year.

In 1966, after suffering a heart attack and on the advice of the superior general, she resigned from her position as provincial. She retired to the provincial house in San Juan, where she continued to serve the community humbly through prayer and small tasks. She passed away on Monday, April 23, 1973, in San Juan, at the age of 80.

The reputation of holiness of Mother María Soledad, already vivid during her lifetime, prompted the congregation to introduce her cause for canonization.

- September 13, 2003: Official introduction of the cause with the obtaining of the nihil obstat decree from the Holy See. - February 24, 2004: Opening of the diocesan inquiry in the Archdiocese of San Juan, Puerto Rico. - June 12, 2007: Closing of the diocesan inquiry. - April 24, 2009: Decree of validity of the diocesan inquiry issued by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. - January 15, 2019: Pope Francis authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing her heroic virtues, thus conferring upon her the title of Venerable.

Currently, María Consuelo Sanjurjo Santos holds the canonical status of venerable. For her beatification to be pronounced, the Catholic Church must officially recognize a miracle performed through her intercession. To date, no miracle has yet been the subject of a decree of approval by the Holy See.

The spirituality of Mother María Soledad rests on a total and confident abandonment to the divine will. She loved to repeat: "Nothing gives more loving peace to the soul than complete abandonment into the hands of God." Her life was characterized by deep humility, great simplicity, and unconditional charity toward the sick and the afflicted.

Nicknamed the "Pearl of the Antilles," she leaves a lasting legacy through the numerous communities and the novitiate she founded in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, thus consolidating the presence of the Servants of Mary in the Caribbean for the care of the most destitute.