Juana Méndez Romero

Despite her absolute immobility and continuous physical suffering, Juanita felt a pressing call to dedicate her life to God within the congregation of the Workers of the Heart of Jesus. In 1963, her community offered her the opportunity to fulfill this vow. Thanks to a special dispensation granted due to her state of health, she was admitted as a postulant on September 29, 1963. She received the habit on March 19, 1964, pronounced her temporary vows on March 9, 1966, and committed herself definitively through her perpetual profession on March 19, 1973.

Unable to move, Sister Juanita deployed a remarkable apostolic and missionary activity from her bed of suffering: - Catechesis: She became a catechist for the children of the parish and the boarding school (Escuela Hogar), preparing them with fervor for their first communion. - Missionary correspondence: Animated by an immense missionary spirit, she maintained regular correspondence with many missionaries throughout the world, providing them with spiritual support and encouragement. - Manual labor: She dedicated the little mobility of her hands to small sewing tasks to help her community. - Welcoming and listening: Her room became a place of spiritual pilgrimage. She received many visitors there, from the children of the residence to adults in search of advice, edifying them all with her peace, her constant smile, and her deep listening.

The reputation for holiness of Sister Juanita, nourished by the heroism with which she lived her illness and her intimate union with Christ, led to the opening of her cause for beatification after her death on April 5, 1990, in Villanueva de Córdoba.

On July 4, 2013, Bishop Demetrio Fernández, Bishop of Córdoba, signed the decree opening the preliminary phase of the diocesan process. The solemn opening of the diocesan inquiry took place on May 6, 2014, at the Church of the Sweet Name of Jesus (Dulce Nombre de Jesús) in Villanueva de Córdoba. The diocesan tribunal, under the direction of the postulator Father Miguel Varona Villar, collected numerous testimonies and documents.

The diocesan phase was officially closed on September 13, 2015, during a celebration presided over by Bishop Demetrio Fernández. A file of 2,080 pages was then sealed and sent to Rome. On September 30, 2015, the documents were delivered to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints at the Vatican. The Roman phase was then entrusted to the postulator, the Capuchin friar Alfonso Ramírez Peralbo.

After the meticulous examination of the Positio by the theological consultants and the cardinals and bishops who are members of the dicastery, Pope Francis reached a decisive stage.

On February 18, 2022, during an audience granted to Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Pope Francis authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing the heroic virtues of the Servant of God Juana Méndez Romero, thus conferring upon her the title of Venerable.

For her beatification to be pronounced, the official recognition of a miracle attributed to her intercession is now required.

The spirituality of the Venerable Juanita is deeply rooted in the charism of the Workers of the Heart of Jesus, founded in 1940 by Mother María Jesús Herruzo and the Jesuit priest Pedro Castro Quero. This charism consists of identifying with the Heart of Jesus to become an offering of love for the Church and the salvation of the world, particularly among the poorest and most abandoned.

Juanita transformed her bed of pain into a true altar of offering. On the advice of her confessor, she made the "vow of victimhood," daily offering her physical sufferings, the gangrene, and the wounds that deformed her body, for the salvation of souls, the sanctification of priests, the Pope, and the extension of the Kingdom of God.

Her devotion is particularly marked by: - A passionate love for the crucified Christ and the daily practice of the Way of the Cross (Vía Crucis). - An absolute filial trust in the Virgin Mary, to whom she consecrated herself entirely at the age of thirteen, renewing this promise every year on the day of the Immaculate Conception. - A supernatural joy and an unalterable peace that struck all who approached her, proving that suffering lived with Christ can become a source of apostolic fruitfulness and deep happiness.

Today, her tomb, located in the Church of the Sweet Name of Jesus in Villanueva de Córdoba, remains a place of reflection and prayer for the faithful who continue to seek her intercession.