MENÉNDEZ, JOSEFA

MENÉNDEZ, JOSEFA. – Religious of the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, born in Madrid on 4 Feb. 1890, died at Poitiers on 29 Dec. 1923.

Having consecrated herself to God from her earliest years and overcome serious family difficulties, she entered the Society of the Sacred Heart at Poitiers on 4 Feb. 1920, where she remained until her death. Occupied, as a lay sister, with all the external duties of the house, she advanced in the interior life to the heights of mysticism. A victim for the conversion of sinners, she experienced within herself the pains of Jesus’ Passion, the most bitter temptations of solitude, doubt and despair, and violent assaults from the devil. She left a message entrusted to her by the Sacred Heart to be communicated to souls, to increase their trust in His divine love, which longs to flood the world with His tenderness and mercy.

BIBL.: The message was published posthumously and in part as Un appel d’amour, sec. J. M., Toulouse 1938 (II. trans. Turin 1940); then in full as Le message du Cœur de Jésus, un monde et sa messagère, sec. J. M., 1934 (II. trans. Turin 1950).