Saint Maria Micaela Desmaisieres

Micaela Desmaisières López de Dicastillo (1 January 1809 – 24 August 1865) - in religion María Micaela of the Blessed Sacrament - was a Spanish Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Handmaids of the Blessed Sacrament. Desmaisières grew up around several European monarchs since her brother - whom she travelled with - was an ambassador to such courts though she later decided to take care of girls and women of a poorer socio-economic background which extended to the care of the ill. The sainthood cause opened on 19 August 1902 under Pope Leo XIII - she was titled as a Servant of God - while Pope Pius XI named her as Venerable on 11 June 1922. The same pope beatified her in 1925 and canonized her as a saint in 1934. Micaela Desmaisières López de Dicastillo was born in 1809 in Madrid during the War of Independence to Miguel Desmaisières Flores and Bernarda López de Dicastillo Olmeda; her brother was Diego (1806–55). Her father was a high-ranking officer in the armed forces and her mother was an attendant to Queen Maria Luisa de Parma. Her mother died in her childhood. Her brother's daughter - her niece - was Maria Diega. The Ursulines oversaw her education. Her social connections led her to having cordial relationships with the French and Spanish monarchs as well as Belgian monarchs. She spent most of her childhood with her brother Diego - the Spanish ambassador to the monarchs. Dances and all sorts of social gatherings and horse riding were the norms for her. She received the title of "Viscountess of Jorbalán. She tended to ill people during a cholera epidemic in 1834. It was around this period that she searched to find the direction she should give her life. She had inherited from her father a warrior's temperament which prepared her for the hard battles in her later life as well as a generous nature.