Venerable María Emilia Riquelme

María Emilia Riquelme y Zayas (5 August 1847 – 10 December 1940) was a Spanish Roman Catholic religious sister and the founder of the Misioneras del Santísimo Sacramento y María Inmaculada. In her childhood she moved from place to place, since her father was an officer and was moved to different barracks across the nation. All the while she studied in boarding schools to perfect her knowledge in French and art. After her schooling she felt drawn to the religious life (based on a vision she experienced when she was seven) and set herself on entering a convent after her father (who opposed this vocation) died. But ill health forced her to give up this idea and she instead founded a congregation of her own alongside several like-minded women who made the poor the focus of their apostolate. This congregation would spread within Spain (such as in Barcelona in 1900) and later across to other countries such as Portugal and Bolivia. Riquelme's cause for beatification was launched in Granada in 1982 when she was named a Servant of God. The cause was furthered on 14 December 2015 when Pope Francis named her as Venerable, upon confirming that she had practiced heroic virtue throughout her life. Francis also confirmed a miracle attributed to her intercession and she was beatified in Granada on 9 November 2019. María Emilia Riquelme y Zayas was born on 5 August 1847 in the house of her maternal grandparents in Granada, to the pious Joaquín Riquelme y Gómez (17 August 1812 – February 1885; he became a cadet aged thirteen and was a strong patriot) and María Emilia Zayas Fernández de Córdoba y de la Vega (13 July 1815 – 28 June 1855). Her parents married in 1846. Her father was a distinguished officer who advanced to the rank of Lieutenant General. Riquelme's maternal ancestor was Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba who was known as "the Great Captain".