Cointa Jauregui Oses

After her religious profession, Sister Cointa taught for three years at the college in Tudela. In 1899, she was part of the group of nuns sent to found a new monastery and college in Talavera de la Reina, near Toledo. There, she assumed important and demanding responsibilities: bursar (procurator), secretary to the prioress, and then director of the college. In 1915, she was elected prioress of the community, a position in which she was confirmed in 1918. In 1931, she was sent to Limoges, France, to participate in the reopening of a house of the Order that had been suppressed in 1904. Upon returning to Spain, she was again elected prioress in Talavera de la Reina, in a climate of intense religious persecution and civil war (1936-1939). During this conflict, Mother Cointa demonstrated heroic courage and prudence. To protect her sisters, she hid them in private homes along with the Blessed Sacrament. She also took the initiative to transform the monastery into a military hospital to prevent it from being requisitioned as a barracks. Forced to leave Talavera, she went to Badajoz, where she founded a new educational establishment for the Order. In 1939, at the end of the war, she returned to Talavera to reorganize the community and rebuild the school. The following years were marked by a delicate process of unifying the monasteries of the Order (founded by Saint Jeanne de Lestonnac) into a single congregation, according to the wishes of the Holy See. Although initially reluctant, Mother Cointa understood that this union would promote the influence of the charism. However, this position divided the community, and some sisters saw it as a break with the traditional monastic spirit. In 1940, after a close consultative vote, the union was accepted, but Mother Cointa was not re-elected prioress and found herself marginalized within her own community. In June 1941, after completing her year of teaching in Talavera, she was transferred to the monastery of San Sebastián (Donostia). She spent the last thirteen years of her life there in self-effacement, prayer, and obedience, accepting humble domestic tasks while gradually losing her hearing and sight. She passed away on January 17, 1954, in San Sebastián.

The reputation for holiness of Mother Cointa Jáuregui Osés spread rapidly after her death. The informative process regarding her virtues and reputation for holiness was opened in the diocese of San Sebastián on October 30, 1961, and concluded on April 30, 1964.

The decree on her writings was published on December 21, 1968. The cause was officially introduced in Rome on January 7, 1982. The decree of validity for the informative and apostolic processes was promulgated on December 21, 1984. The Positio was published in 1996 to be examined by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

On October 8, 2013, the particular congress of theological consultants gave a favorable opinion on the heroism of her virtues. This opinion was confirmed by the ordinary session of cardinals and bishops on January 20, 2015.

On January 22, 2015, Pope Francis authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing the heroic virtues of the Servant of God Cointa Jáuregui Osés, thus conferring upon her the title of Venerable.

The spirituality of the Venerable Cointa Jáuregui Osés is deeply Eucharistic and Marian. The Eucharist, received and adored, was always the center of her interior life. She sought to imitate the Virgin Mary as a model of self-giving and evangelization. Her life bears witness to a constant search for the will of God, lived in patience, humility, and a profound fraternal charity. She often asked the Lord to grant her the "delicacy of charity." Her educational legacy, faithful to the Christian humanist pedagogy of Saint Jeanne de Lestonnac, continues to inspire the Company of Mary Our Lady in its mission to the youth.