Servant of God Mary of Jesus de León y Delgado

Mary of Jesus de León y Delgado (Spanish: Sor María de Jesús), was a 17th-century Spanish Dominican lay sister, mystic and visionary. She was widely known as La Siervita ("the little servant") in the Canary Islands. She lived a life that was austere and simple. Many miracles were attributed to her. De León died with a reputation for sanctity. She is one of the most revered of the native people of the Canary Islands, together with Peter of Saint Joseph Betancur and José de Anchieta. The cause for her beatification has been submitted to the Holy See for review. She is designated as a Servant of God. De León was born on 23 March 1643, to Andrés de León y Bello and María Delgado y Perera, in the town of El Sauzal, on Tenerife, of the Spanish Canary Islands. Her family was said to be humble but of noble origin. She was the youngest child, and had two sisters and a brother. She may have been of Guanche ancestry. After De León's father died in 1646, poverty overtook the family. Three years later, a couple from mainland Spain, who had relocated to the city of San Cristóbal de La Laguna, where the husband was to practice medicine, decided that they wanted another child in addition to their first to care for. The doctor's wife appealed to María Delgado to give up her youngest daughter to give her a better life. Two years later, the couple made plans to move to New Spain, intending to take Mary with them. But her birth mother recovered the girl. Delgado died shortly after and a good friend, Inés Pérez, took her in. She lived in La Orotava. When De León was a youth, two local women, who had the reputation of leading simple lives, came to her foster mother with a letter supposedly from the girl's maternal aunt, Catalina Delgado. It said that Delgado and her husband wished to care for the girl, and the bearers should accompany her to their farm. When they took her back to the city of San Cristóbal de La Laguna, one of the women approached a man in a back alley of the city.