DROSTE ZU VISCHERING, MARIA (MARIA del DIVIN CUORE). – A religious of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, born into a noble family at Münster on 8 September 1863, she died at Porto (Portugal) on 8 June 1899, reputed to be a saint. Having become a religious, she zealously promoted the consecration of the human race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, writing about it several times to Leo XIII, who subsequently accepted the insistent prayers of the servant of God. She offered herself as a victim of love and reparation.
Her cause of beatification was introduced on 28 November 1941.
BIBL.: L. Casle, Suor Maria del Divin Cuore, 2nd ed., Turin 1929; AAS, 34 (1942), pp. 41–43. Silverio Mattei