Blessed Maria Clara do Menino Jesus

Maria Clara of the Child Jesus (15 June 1843 – 1 December 1899) — born Libânia do Carmo Galvão Mexia de Moura Telles de Albuquerque was a Portuguese religious sister in the Roman Catholic Church who established the Franciscan Hospitaller Sisters of the Immaculate Conception in Lisbon. She led the congregation as its superior. Her beatification was celebrated in Lisbon in 2011 and Cardinal Angelo Amato presided over the solemn Mass on the behalf of Pope Benedict XVI. Libânia do Carmo Galvão Mexia de Moura Telles de Albuquerque was born on 15 June 1843 in Lisbon to the nobles Nuno Tomás de Mascarenhas Galvão Mexia de Moura Telles de Albuquerque (25 January 1813 — 3 December 1857) and Maria da Purificação de Sá Carneiro Duarte Ferreira (d. 30 May 1856); her brother was Henrique Galvão Mexia Moura Sousa Telles Albuquerque (b. 15 March 1851). She received her baptism from Father Jerónimo on 2 September 1843 in the parish church of Benfica. Her godmother was Libânia do Carmo de Abranches Ferreira da Cunha. Her great-uncle died in her home during her adolescence and her little brother Rui died around that time. Her mother died from cholera on 30 May 1856 and her father followed mere months later in 1857 due to Yellow Fever in Saint Joseph's Hospital. In October 1857 she joined the Royal Asylum of Ajuda (Asilo Real da Ajuda) — in the palace of King Peter V — an orphanage for children of noble families that the Vincentian Sisters managed (until 1882) and remained there in the boarding school until 9 June 1862 when the Marquises of Valada invited her to reside with them. The Marchioness — a friend of her late parents — treated her like her own daughter. She remained there until 1867 when she sought shelter at the convent of São Patrício. In 1869 she received the habit of the Capuchin order in the convent of São Patrício and assumed the name of "Maria Clara of the Child Jesus".