María Teresa González Justo

At the age of 20, desiring to dedicate her entire life to God and the service of others, she decided to enter religious life. On March 15, 1941, she joined the novitiate of the Sisters of Our Lady of Consolation in Jesús-Tortosa. In September of the same year, she received the religious habit and took the name Sister María Teresa (Sor María Teresa). She made her first religious profession in 1943. After briefly working at the congregation's school in Burriana, she was sent to the sanatorium in Vila-real (Villarreal) to care for patients suffering from tuberculosis, a field of apostolate among the most suffering to which she felt particularly called. She worked there with dedication until November 1953, when the entire sanatorium (patients, staff, and nuns) was transferred to Castellón de la Plana, to the new anti-tuberculosis sanatorium "La Magdalena." Sister María Teresa spent the rest of her life at the La Magdalena sanatorium, dedicating herself body and soul to the patients. In a post-war context marked by shortages of food and medicine, she displayed boundless charity. She did not hesitate to deprive herself of her own food to give it discreetly to the most destitute patients. Concerned with breaking the isolation of patients often abandoned for fear of contagion, she wrote regularly to their families to maintain the emotional bond. Her joyful, gentle, and humble temperament earned her the affectionate nicknames "Sister Joy" (Sor Alegría) or "Her Smile" (Su Sonrisa) from the patients and her fellow sisters.

Afflicted with an incurable cancer, Sister María Teresa continued to serve the sick as long as her strength allowed, uniting her own sufferings with those of Christ. She passed away on October 12, 1967, the feast day of Our Lady of the Pillar, at the La Magdalena sanatorium, at the age of 46. Her mortal remains rest today in the chapel of the College of Our Lady of Consolation in Castellón de la Plana, where many faithful come to pray and seek her intercession.

The cause for the beatification and canonization of Sister María Teresa González Justo was officially introduced in the Diocese of Segorbe-Castellón in September 1981. The diocesan inquiry process regarding her life and virtues was opened on July 17, 1982, and closed on April 23, 1983. After examination of the cause by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the validity of the process was decreed on March 9, 1984. On June 13, 1992, Pope John Paul II promulgated the decree recognizing the heroic nature of her virtues, thereby conferring upon her the title of Venerable. The 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 Teresa González Justo is deeply rooted in the charism of consolation of her congregation, founded by Saint María Rosa Molas. Her entire life was an active contemplation of God through the faces of the sick and the poor. She loved to repeat: "My God, how I love my brothers, it is because in them You are there!" ("¡Dios mío, cuánto amo a mis hermanos, es que en ellos estás Tú!"). For her, love and forgiveness were not to remain empty words, but to be translated into concrete acts. Her legacy remains alive within the Family of Consolation throughout the world. In 2021, on the occasion of the centenary of her birth, numerous celebrations took place in Spain and in the various missions of the congregation. A musical show titled La Fuerza de un Sueño ("The Strength of a Dream") was also created to make her luminous journey of forgiveness, joy, and selfless service known to the younger generations.