Monica Cornago Zapater

Within her community, Sister Mónica de Jesús held the status of a "white-veil sister" or "sister of obedience" (lay sister). Having not pursued higher education, she was tasked with the most humble material and domestic duties of the monastery: working in the vegetable garden, maintaining the courtyard, sewing, or even shoemaking. Despite the simplicity of her daily tasks, she developed an interior life of exceptional depth. Her main work lies in her testimony of a hidden life and in her voluminous spiritual correspondence. She wrote thousands of letters, notably to her spiritual director, Father Eugenio Cantera, OAR. This correspondence (comprising more than 580 letters addressed to him between 1914 and 1955) constitutes a major spiritual document that reveals the richness of her soul, her intimate union with God, and her mystical experiences, all while remaining of absolute humility and discretion in the eyes of her fellow sisters.

During her lifetime, and even more so after her death in 1964, Sister Mónica de Jesús enjoyed a solid reputation for holiness among the inhabitants of Baeza and the faithful who sought her prayers and counsel. Faced with the constant influx of devotees, her mortal remains were transferred from the monastery crypt to the conventual church on October 7, 1967. On December 8, 1979, the Bishop of Jaén, Msgr. Miguel Peinado Peinado, officially opened the diocesan informative process on her life and virtues in the Cathedral of Baeza. During this diocesan phase, forty-six witnesses were heard to attest to her piety and reputation for holiness. The Positio super virtutibus, a summary document demonstrating the heroic nature of her virtues, was officially submitted to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome in 1987.

The canonization process reached a decisive stage on June 13, 1992. On that day, Pope John Paul II signed the decree recognizing the heroic nature of her theological and cardinal virtues, thus conferring upon her the canonical title of Venerable. The cause for beatification is currently underway, awaiting the official recognition of a miracle attributed to her intercession by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.

The spirituality of the Venerable Mónica de Jesús is deeply Christocentric and Eucharistic, marked by the influence of Saint Ezekiel Moreno. It is characterized by a passionate love for Jesus in the Eucharist and a fervent devotion to the Sacred Heart. Sister Mónica lived her contemplative vocation in a spirit of reparation and self-offering, establishing herself as a "victim soul" for the salvation of sinners and the conversion of souls. Her spiritual life was also punctuated by extraordinary mystical phenomena reported in her writings, such as visions of the Virgin Mary, apparitions of the souls in purgatory, and an intimate relationship with her guardian angel, whom she affectionately called her "elder brother" (hermano mayor). Today, her legacy remains alive in Baeza and Monteagudo. The Association of Friends of Sister Mónica oversees the dissemination of her memory and organizes a thanksgiving mass on the 14th of each month at the Monastery of the Magdalene in Baeza, where her body rests. In June 2014, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of her death, a bronze statue in her likeness was inaugurated and blessed in Baeza.