MARIA MICHELA of the MOST BLESSED SACRAMENT, saint. - Michela Des Maisières Lopez di Dicastillo, Viscountess of Jorbalán, foundress of the Handmaids of the Most Blessed Sacrament and of Charity, born in Madrid on 1 Jan. 1809, died in Valencia on 24 Aug. 1865.
From her earliest years, and even more in her youth, she distinguished herself in the exercise of charity, especially toward girls in danger or fallen women, even during the several years she spent with her brother, ambassador in Paris and Brussels. For them she founded in Madrid in 1845 a “College,” where they might be rehabilitated before God and society. In order to make this work lasting, she conceived the plan of founding a new Congregation that would care for it and at the same time practise perpetual adoration. The Institute was established on 6 Jan. 1859, and she directed it until her death. The work soon expanded, and by the time of her death seven houses had already been founded, which she called the “seven sorrows of the Madonna.” The cause of her death was an epidemic that broke out in the house at Valencia, where she hastened to tend her afflicted sisters and where she contracted the infection two days after her arrival.
She was beatified on 7 June 1925 and canonized on 4 March 1934. Feast day: 14 Aug.