Venerable Montserrat Grases

María Montserrat Grases García (10 July 1941 – 26 March 1959) was a Catalan Catholic laywoman who was a secular member of Opus Dei. Grases became part of Opus Dei on 24 December 1957 after she discerned whether or not her path would allow her to join their ranks. Her cheerfulness and friendship with others made her a known figure for her piety and her compassionate nature towards the poor and the ill since she would often catechize to children and tend to the poor in the poor regions in Barcelona alongside her friends. Grases further continued her studies despite her bone cancer and she continued to demonstrate a cheerful demeanor centered on offering her suffering for Opus Dei's founder Saint Josemaría Escrivá and for both Pope Pius XII and Pope John XXIII, who both reigned during her illness. She died in 1959 at the age of 17. The cause for her beatification commenced on 19 December 1962, thus making her a Servant of God. The confirmation of her heroic virtue on 26 April 2016 allowed for Pope Francis to title Grases as venerable. María Montserrat Grases García was born in Barcelona on 10 July 1941 as the second of nine children to Manuel Grases and Manolita García. Her baptism was celebrated on 19 July in the church of Nuestra Señora del Pilar. People knew her with affection as "Montse". Her parents sought to create a climate in which sincere faith was fostered with great respect for their children's freedom. In late 1942 she suffered from bronchitis but remedies failed to work promoting constant care for her condition which improved and was gone in the summer of 1943. On 11 June 1944 – with her brothers Jorge and Enrique – she received her Confirmation at the parish of Santa María. Grases made her First Communion on 27 May 1948. In October 1946 she began her schooling and in 1951 commenced her high school education under the care of nuns.