SISTER SERVANT OF MARY – VIRGIN AND MARTYR
Memorial

Maria Guadalupe was born in Albal, Valencia, Spain on February 23, 1881. Early in life she expressed the desire to dedicate herself entirely to God. In 1896 she was received as a postulant in the convent of contemplative Servite nuns in Valencia. She pronounced her perpetual vows on June 19, 1900. In the convent she held various offices including that of mistress of novices and prioress. Her life was marked by simplicity and fidelity, by her concern to pass on to younger members of the community the values proper to the contemplative life. When the nuns were forced to leave their convent in 1936 because of the Spanish Civil War, she found refuge with some relatives and later in the home of her sister Filomena. At midnight on October 2, 1936, she was taken by four armed soldiers in a truck and eventually killed simply because she was a nun. At first she was buried in a common grave, but in 1940, after the end of the Civil War, her remains were transferred to the convent cemetery. When a new convent was built in Mislata, the remains were taken and placed beside the main altar. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II on March 11, 2001.