Today, March 20, is the memorial of Saint Maria Josefa Sancho de Guerra.
Foundress of the Servants of Jesus of Charity.
Born in 1842, Maria Josefa came from a Spanish Catholic family. When her father Bernabe died, her mother Petra made sure that Maria Josefa had an education.
At age 18, Maria Josefa wanted to leave the outside world and join a convent. She quite successfully managed to convince Petra and was able to enter the Institute of the Servants of Mary. Later, she felt unsuited for her choice, consulting her confessors and committing her vocation to prayer in the process.
María Josefa realized she was being called to found a congregation. Thus, in 1871, at the age of 29, she founded the Servants of Jesus of Charity. Their ministry was—still is—the care for the children, the sick, the elderly, and the poor.
She had a devotion to the Sacred Heart. For her, their ministry was their way of participating in Christ’s redemptive sufferings.
She died of natural causes in 1912. She was beatified in 1992 and canonized in 2000. Pope St. John Paul II presided both ceremonies.