MARIA di Gesù, Venerable. — Discalced Carmelite, born Maria Lopez de Rivas, on 18 August 1560 in Tartanedo (Guadalajara, Spain), died in Toledo on 13 September 1640 in a reputation for holiness. She received the habit of the daughters of St Teresa in Toledo, where from 1583 she served six times as novice mistress and three times as prioress. She possessed a profound understanding of Sacred Scripture, celestial visions, the gift of prophecy, and the discernment of spirits. The cause for her beatification was introduced in 1926 (AAS, 19 [1927], pp. 102-105).
Bibl.: Articulos para la causa de la sierva de Dios M. de Jesús, Toledo 1914; Gioacchino della S. Famiglia, La sierva de Dios M. de Jesús, ibid. 1919; Evaristo della Vergine, «El Letrado de s. Teresa» Biografia de la m. M. de Jesús, ibid. 1926; Sillvero di S. Teresa, Historia del Carmen Descalzo en España..., Ambrogio di Santa Teresa IX, Burgos 1940, pp. 779-823.