María Josefa Recio

In 1878, María Josefa Recio Martín and her friend María Angustias Giménez Vera met Father Benito Menni in Granada, a priest of the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of God, who had been sent to Spain to restore his order. Under his spiritual direction, the two women discerned a call to dedicate their lives to the service of the most neglected. On June 21, 1880, they left Granada to settle in Ciempozuelos, near Madrid. It was there that, on May 31, 1881, they took the religious habit, officially founding the Congregation of the Sisters Hospitallers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Hermanas Hospitalarias del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús). María Josefa Recio Martín was appointed the first Superior General of the institute and took the name María Josefa del Santísimo Sacramento. The nascent work was specifically dedicated to the reception, psychiatric care, and integral rehabilitation of women suffering from mental illnesses, a group that was particularly marginalized, mistreated, and abandoned at that time. María Josefa Recio Martín led the community with immense gentleness, working herself at the most humble tasks and teaching her sisters to behave as "true mothers" toward the sick. Her life was brutally interrupted. In August 1883, while attempting to calm a patient suffering from severe mental disorders during a violent crisis, she received violent blows. She succumbed to her injuries two months later, on October 30, 1883, at the age of 37, offering her life as a victim of her heroic charity.

The cause for the canonization of María Josefa Recio Martín was officially introduced on June 21, 1991. After a meticulous examination of her life and writings, the congress of theologians gathered in Rome voted favorably on February 8, 2011, to recognize the heroic nature of her virtues.

On May 10, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI signed the decree recognizing that María Josefa Recio Martín lived the Christian virtues to a heroic degree, 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 required by the Church.

The spirituality of the Venerable María Josefa Recio Martín is based on hospitality lived as an expression of divine mercy. Her spiritual testament exhorts her sisters to live in constant charity: "Have much charity and patience with the sick, behaving towards them like true mothers." The motto of the first sisters summarizes their spiritual abandonment: "pray, work, endure, suffer, love God and be silent." Today, the Congregation of the Sisters Hospitallers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus continues its mission throughout the world, offering specialized and humane care to people suffering from mental illnesses or disabilities. Furthermore, the Fundación María Josefa Recio perpetuates her work by protecting and accompanying vulnerable people and those with psychological disorders.