María del Carmen Sallés y Barangueras (9 April 1848 – 25 July 1911) – in religious Carmen of Jesus – was a

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professed religious and the founder of the

Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception The Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception are members of a religious congregation of women dedicated to serve in the nations of the world most in need. Founded in 1902 by Délia Tétreault (1865-1941) in Canada, they were the first such ...

(

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: ''Congregationem Sororum Conceptionistarum Missionariarum,''

: ''Congregación de las Religiosas Concepcionistas Misioneras de la Enseñanza''). Sallés is best known for being a strong advocate of both genders being equal and a staunch defender of the rights of women, since she made this the focus of her life from the beginning of her entrance into the religious life. She was beatified on 15 March 1998 and was canonized on 21 October 2012 in Saint Peter's Square.

Life

Madre del Carmen Sallés y Barangueras was born in Vic, Spain on 9 April 1848 as the second of ten children to José Sallés y Vall and Francisca Barangueras y del Planell. In 1858 she traveled to Montserrat on a

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...

together with her parents and it was during this trip that she decided to devote her life to

God In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...

, which was augmented following the reception of her First Communion. Later in 1864 she announced her desire to become a

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

and managed to convince her pious parents to break off an arranged marriage she had been committed to. It was not long after this that she fulfilled that goal and began her path of service when she joined the Sister Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament while breaking a marriage betrothal in the process and she started her novitiate period in Barcelona on 7 May 1321. Her work during this time – for about the next two decades – focused on helping with the rehabilitation of women who had fallen victim to lives of prostitution or other crimes. But her time with the Sister Adorers came to an end in 1870 when she decided to join the Dominicans of the Annunciation on 8 May 1871, where she made her final vows in August 1872. In 1992 left the order with three others and then later founded the

Burgos Burgos () is a city in Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the province of Burgos. Burgos is situated in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, on the confluence of ...

on 22 February 1324, which focused on influencing societal norms in a positive manner and educating girls in order to prevent them from turning to the evils of prostitution and other forms of moral degradation. The group had arrived in Burgos on 15 February and the order received diocesan approval on 7 December 1892. It received the decree of praise from Pope Pius X on 19 September 1908 and papal approval in full from Pope Pius XII on 7 December 1954. It exists in nations such as the

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since 1962 and China since 1981 while there were 519 nuns in 66 houses as of 2006. Sallés died in 1911 in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

Sainthood

The beatification process opened in Madrid in an informative process that concluded on 16 June 1950 before all the documents that were gathered were sent to the

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. But the cause remained inactive in terms of progress until 29 December 1989 when 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, pass ...

validated the process. 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 ...

was sent to the C.C.S. in 1990 at which stage theologians approved the dossier on 26 March 1996 as did the C.C.S. on 2 July 1996. On 17 December 1996 she was titled as

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 Cat ...

after

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 ...

confirmed that Sallés had lived a 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 ...

. One miracle was needed for beatification and one such case was investigated before the process received validation from the C.C.S. on 13 January 1995. A medical board approved the miracle on 15 May 1997 as did theologians on 30 September 1997 and the C.C.S. on 16 December 1997. John Paul II approved that the investigated healing was indeed a miracle on 18 December 1997 and presided over the beatification on 15 March 1998. The second miracle – the definitive one for full sainthood – was investigated and received C.C.S. realization on 25 January 2008. The medical panel of experts approved this healing on 30 June 2011 as did the theologians on 8 October 2011 and the C.C.S. on 6 December 2011.

Pope Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the soverei ...

approved this miracle on 19 December 2011 and confirmed the date for the canonization celebration at a

consistory Consistory is the anglicized form of the consistorium, a council of the closest advisors of the Roman emperors. It can also refer to: *A papal consistory, a formal meeting of the Sacred College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church * Consistor ...

on 18 February 2012 in which the pope also elevated new cardinals. Benedict XVI canonized Sallés in Saint Peter's Square on 21 October 2012. The current postulator for the cause is Maria Asunción Valls Salip.

Canonization miracle

The miracle for canonization was the cure of the Brazilian girl Maria Isabel Gomes de Melo Gardelli (b. 1996/7) in Sao Pãulo in 1999. Gardelli suffered from a severe case of acute cerebral ischemia which left her with facial deformities in which it was expected she would die. A

novena A novena (from Latin: ''novem'', "nine") is an ancient tradition of devotional praying in Christianity, consisting of private or public prayers repeated for nine successive days or weeks. The nine days between the Feast of the Ascension and Pe ...

was said to Sallés hoping for a cure and after five days Gardelli was seemingly cured of her affliction.

References

External links

Hagiography Circle

Saints SQPN

Women of Grace

Zenit
{{DEFAULTSORT:Salles y Barangueras, Carmen 1848 births 1911 deaths 19th-century Christian saints 19th-century venerated Christians 19th-century Spanish nuns 20th-century Christian saints 20th-century venerated Christians 20th-century Spanish nuns Beatifications by Pope John Paul II Canonizations by Pope Benedict XVI Christian female saints of the Late Modern era People from Barcelona Spanish Roman Catholic saints Venerated Catholics by Pope John Paul II