Maria Josefa Alhama y Valera (30 September 1893 – 8 February 1983) was a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

Spanish nun and she was the founder of both the Handmaids of Merciful Love in 1930 and the Sons of Merciful Love in 1951. She took the name of "Maria Esperanza of Jesus" when she became a nun. Valera was cleared for

beatification Beatification (from Latin ''beatus'', "blessed" and ''facere'', "to make”) is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their nam ...

in 2013 after a miracle that had found to have been attributed to her intercession was cleared. She was beatified on in 2014 by Cardinal

Angelo Amato Angelo Amato, S.D.B. (born 8 June 1938) is an Italian cardinal of the Catholic Church who served as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints between 2008 and 2018. He served as Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of t ...

on behalf of

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...

Biography

Valera was born in 1893 in Spain to poor parents as the eldest of nine children. Her name of Maria Josefa was in honor of her grandmother. Her mother was a

housewife A housewife (also known as a homemaker or a stay-at-home mother/mom/mum) is a woman whose role is running or managing her family's home—housekeeping, which includes caring for her children; cleaning and maintaining the home; making, buying an ...

while her father served as an

agricultural Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating Plant, plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of Sedentism, sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of Domestication, domesticated species created food ...

worker. Valera studied as a child under female religious and it was from them she learnt how to do housework. Valera received communion at the age of 12 but she had received it at the age of 8 as she herself said to "steal"

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

. This occurred when the priest was absent and she went to the

tabernacle According to the Hebrew Bible, the tabernacle ( he, מִשְׁכַּן, mīškān, residence, dwelling place), also known as the Tent of the Congregation ( he, link=no, אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד, ’ōhel mō‘ēḏ, also Tent of Meeting, etc.), ...

to receive the consecrated host. Valera - at the age of 21 - became a member of the Congregation of the Daughters of Calvary in Villena. She established two of her own orders in 1930 and in 1951 for women and for men respectively. In the 1950s she decided to begin a project that she believed represented the will of

God In monotheism, monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator deity, creator, and principal object of Faith#Religious views, faith.Richard Swinburne, Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Ted Honderich, Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Ox ...

: the construction of a sanctuary that would be dedicated to the love of God. On 22 November 1981,

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

visited the sanctuary and visited Valera. In 1982, the pope recognized it as being a "

minor basilica In the Catholic Church, a basilica is a designation given by the Pope to a church building. Basilicas are distinguished for ceremonial purposes from other churches. The building need not be a basilica in the architectural sense (a rectangular ...

". She died in early 1983 and was buried in that church she worked hard to build.

Beatification

The cause of

commenced under Pope John Paul II on 9 March 1988 and the

Positio In the Catholic Church, a ''positio'' (''Positio super Virtutibus'') is a document or collection of documents used in the process by which a person is declared Venerable, the second of the four steps on the path to canonization as a saint. Des ...

- which documented her life of

heroic virtue Heroic virtue is a phrase coined by Augustine of Hippo to describe the virtue of early Christian martyrs and used by the Catholic Church. The Greek pagan term hero described a person with possibly superhuman abilities and great goodness, and "it ...

was submitted to the

Congregation for the Causes of Saints In the Catholic Church, the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, previously named the Congregation for the Causes of Saints (), is the dicastery of the Roman Curia that oversees the complex process that leads to the canonization of saints, pa ...

in 1993. The pope recognized that she had lived a life of heroic virtue and named her to be

Venerable The Venerable (''venerabilis'' in Latin) is a style, a title, or an epithet which is used in some Western Christian churches, or it is a translation of similar terms for clerics in Eastern Orthodoxy and monastics in Buddhism. Christianity Cathol ...

on 23 April 2002. An independent tribunal opened and closed in 2001 in response to a presumed miracle that had occurred. It submitted its findings to the congregation and

approved the miracle on 5 July 2013. Cardinal

- on behalf of the pope - celebrated the beatification on 31 May 2014.

References

External links

Hagiography CircleSaints SQPNHandmaids of Merciful LoveCollevalenzaFamilia Amor del Misericordioso
{{DEFAULTSORT:Valera, Maria Josefa Alhama y 1893 births 1983 deaths Spanish beatified people Beatifications by Pope Francis 20th-century venerated Christians Founders of Catholic religious communities Venerated Catholics by Pope John Paul II