Saint María Soledad Torres y Acosta

December 2, 1826 – October 11, 1887

Feast day: October 11

Maria Soledad Torres y Acosta was born in Madrid on December 2, 1826. Her parents were Francisco Torres and Antonia Acosta. A total of 5 children were born in this family. They gave her the name Manuela and she was baptized as 'Antonia Bibiana Manuela'. Her mother and father ran a small business that sold goods to tourists in the Plaza de Espana, in central Madrid. Maria grew up in a good Christian environment. She was a thoughtful child, more interested in passing her own food on to her poorer playmates, and learning their prayers, than playing games with them.

She studied with the Vincentian sisters and seeing the total devotion of these nuns to the poorest of the poor, she became enthusiastic about religious life. But she was in very bad health and was not accepted into the community. Only at the age of 25 can she fulfill her wish to become a nun. She was known for her diligent and loving care for the sick and the poor. She became the holy foundress of the Sisters Servants of Mary, servants of the sick, who have 126 houses in the world with 2,380 religious.

About 1850 she felt called to join a private religious order and applied to a Dominican monastery (not too far from her home) for admission as a secular religious, but had to wait until there was room for her. In 1851 she learned of the efforts of Miguel Martínez Sanz (a third-order serviette), who was a pastor in Chamberí. Martínez suggested creating a group of seven women who would serve the sick and poor of his parish in their own homes, as these people often could not afford proper hospitalization. Torres volunteered himself for this work and (with initial reluctance) Martínez accepted her as the seventh and final member of the order he wanted to create. On August 15, 1851, she and her six companions devoted their lives to this service as a religious group, adopting the religious custom at the time; she took the religious name "María Soledad".

At that time, the terrible cholera epidemic reached Europe and the patients did not fit in hospitals. Many of them were abandoned by their relatives for fear of contamination. It was then that María Soledad and her nuns multiplied everywhere to care for the most desolate.

The founder of the community went as a missionary to distant lands and the successor believed in stories and gossip and dismissed Soledad from the position of superior. She rejoiced that she was able to resemble Christ in the suffering of misunderstanding and persecution. Her visits to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament gave her the strength to suffer patiently and out of love for God. Then the truth of all this came to light and she was restored to her post, and under her leadership her congregation expanded admirably. The saint died on October 11, 1887 at the age of 61. She was canonized by Paul VI in 1970.