Venerable María Luisa Josefa

María Luisa Josefa of the Most Blessed Sacrament, also called "Mother Luisita" (June 21, 1866 – February 11, 1937) was a Mexican Catholic religious sister who founded the Carmelite Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mexico and the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles. She is under consideration for sainthood, having been declared venerable. She was born María Luisa de la Peña y Navarro on June 21, 1866 in Atotonilco el Alto, Jalisco, the third (and first surviving) of fourteen children. Although she felt drawn to the religious life, at the age of fifteen, in obedience to her parents, she married Pascual Rojas, a prominent physician twice her age. Their life together was happy. They built the little Hospital of the Sacred Heart to serve those less fortunate. After fourteen years of married life, María Luisa was left a widow, in 1896. Eight years later María Luisa entered the Cloistered Carmelites and became immersed in the spirituality of Carmel. After seven months she was asked by the archbishop to return to her work at the hospital which needed her guidance. Along with the hospital, she opened a school and orphanage. The archbishop told her that she would have to join an existing religious congregation. She joined the Sister Servants of the Blessed Sacrament. Four years later the archbishop asked her to return as she was needed at the hospital and with the children. More women joined her. This time the archbishop suggested that she found a religious congregation; the Carmelite Sisters of the Sacred Heart (Hermanas Carmelitas del Sagrado Corazón, also called Carmelitas de Tijuana) were established on February 2, 1921. Mother Luisita's charism for the new Carmelite branch she founded was "to unite the spirit of Carmel with the active apostolate". On June 24, 1927, María Luisa and two other nuns sought refuge in Los Angeles, California from the religious persecutions in Mexico at that time.