Today, December 11, is the memorial of Saint Maria Maravillas de Jesus.
Carmelite nun.
Maria de la Maravillas Pidal Chico de Guzman was born in Madrid in 1891. Her father was the Spanish ambassador to the Vatican. She grew up in a pious family, was known as “Mavi, ”an intelligent and religious child. When she was five, she made a private vow of chastity.
Early in life she felt a call to the religious life. She joined the Discalced Carmelite monastery at El Escorial, Madrid, Spain in 1919.
In 1924, Mother Maravillas and three other sisters founded a house at Cerro de los Angeles, Madrid, the geographical center of Spain, and she took her final vows there in 1924. She became prioress of the house in 1926.
The house expanded so quickly that Mother Maravillas was sent to found another in Kottayam, India, which over the years has expanded to many other Carmels in that country. She returned to Spain, and in 1936, as part of the anti–clerical schemes of the Spanish Civil War, she and her sisters were arrested, relocated to Madrid, and were under house arrest and harassment for many months. In 1937, Mother Maravillas and her community relocated to Las Batuecas, Salamanca, Spain where they founded a new house.
In 1939, she led a group of sisters to restore the house at Cerro de los Angeles. From there, she led an expansion of the Carmelites. To unite all these communities, she founded the Association of Saint Teresa in 1972. The Carmel in La Aldeheula was like a town: it had schools, housing projects for the poor, church, community halls, and other buildings.
She suffered a couple of heart attacks, the last one weakened Mother Maravillas until her death in 1974 at age 83. Her last words were: “What happiness to die a Carmelite!”
Pope St. John Paul II beatified her in 1998 in Rome, and canonized her in 2003 in Madrid, Spain.