Saint María del Monte Carmelo Sallés y Barangueras

María del Carmen Sallés y Barangueras (9 April 1848 – 25 July 1911), religious name Carmen of Jesus, was a Spanish religious sister. She founded the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception. 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 religious life. She was beatified on 15 March 1998 and was canonized on 21 October 2012 in Saint Peter's Square. 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. The family later moved to Manresa. In 1858 she traveled to Montserrat on a pilgrimage together with her parents and it was during this trip that she decided to devote her life to God, which was augmented following the reception of her First Communion. Later in 1864 she announced her desire to become a religious sister and managed to convince her parents to break off an arranged marriage to which Carmen had been committed. 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 in Barcelona on 7 May 1869. Her work for the following two decades focused on helping with the rehabilitation of women who had fallen victim to lives of prostitution or other crimes. In May 1871, she decided to join the Dominican Sisters of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin. Sallés made her perpetual vows in August 1872. Salles ran a little school so that the children of working women were not on the streets. After a visit to the chapel of the Virgin of Good Counsel, located in the Collegiate Church of San Isidro in Madrid, Sallés decided on her next course of action.