Regina Lete Landa

Feeling the call to religious life, Regina entered the novitiate of the Mercedarian Sisters of Charity (Hermanas Mercedarias de la Caridad) in Zumárraga on June 7, 1929, at the age of 15. On January 2, 1931, she pronounced her first vows under the name Sister Maria Isabel de Jesús. Her first obedience brought her to the anti-tuberculosis sanatorium of Tablada, near Madrid, where she devoted herself to the sick until October 1935, before being transferred to the San Pedro hospital in Madrid. In 1936, the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War and the subsequent religious persecution forced her community to disperse. Sister Isabel remained in Madrid, dressed in civilian clothes to avoid suspicion, and worked as a children's governess for a dentist. During this period of trial, deprived of Mass and the sacraments, she maintained an intense life of prayer and spiritual union with the Blessed Sacrament. Thanks to the help of the "Refugio Vasco" (Basque Refuge), she managed to escape from the capital with sixteen other nuns and reached the novitiate of Zumárraga on October 26, 1937. On November 15 of the same year, she was sent to the anti-tuberculosis sanatorium of Eibar to care for the sick and the war wounded. It was in this heroic service to the tubercular patients that she contracted the disease herself. On January 2, 1939, she pronounced her perpetual vows in Zumárraga.

Officially diagnosed with tuberculosis in August 1939, Sister Isabel accepted the illness with admirable serenity and joy. Following the example of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, she offered herself as a holocaust to the merciful love of God, living her final two years in a total offering for the sanctification of priests and for the missions. She passed away prematurely on October 13, 1941, at the Eibar sanatorium, at the age of 28. Since 1972, her mortal remains have rested in the church of the Mercedarian Sisters' convent in Zumárraga.

The reputation for holiness of Sister Isabel de Jesús spread rapidly after her death. The Bishop of San Sebastián opened the diocesan inquiry for her beatification and canonization, which took place from 1986 to 1989. Two additional rogatory inquiries were conducted in Madrid and Cuenca. The legal validity of the procedure was officially recognized by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on March 14, 1992. On June 26, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing the heroic nature of her virtues, thereby conferring upon her the title of Venerable.

The spirituality of the Venerable Isabel de Jesús is based on the "little way" of spiritual childhood, characterized by simplicity, humility, poverty, and a trusting abandonment to the divine will. Her two great spiritual pillars were Eucharistic love (notably the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament) and Marian devotion. She left within her congregation the testimony of a joyful and redemptive charity. Today, the "Delegación Sor Isabel Lete" of her congregation is active in Asia (notably in South Korea, the Philippines, and India), perpetuating her missionary spirit and dedication.