Torres Acosta, Maria Soledad, Blessed

TORRES ACOSTA, Maria Soledad, Blessed. - In the world Emmanuela Bibiana, foundress of the Servants of Mary, Ministers of the Sick, b. in Madrid on 2 Dec. 1826, d. there on 11 Oct. 1887.

Drawn to the religious life, after having knocked in vain at the door of the Dominicans, she learned that the pious priest Michele Martinez was contemplating a new institution dedicated to the care of the sick in their homes, imperiously demanded by the needs of so many poor people, neglected and abandoned. M. Soledad offered him her collaboration, the last of a group of seven; on 15 Aug. 1851 they all consecrated themselves to the new work, and she, shortly afterwards, was appointed its superior. At first it seemed that the small plant was destined to perish at its birth, because several of the group withdrew, and the others found themselves in the harshest poverty; M. Soledad was deposed from her office as superior and relegated to a small hospital. But once her virtue and enlightened zeal were recognized, the bishop of Madrid reinstated her in her office. From then on the new Congregation began to flourish; the Constitutions having been written and approved, recruits and houses increased, and the Institute gave splendid proof of itself in caring for and comforting the cholera victims; during the fratricidal revolution of 1867 it cared for the wounded on the field of battle, at Valencia; shortly afterwards in Barcelona it founded a house to succour those stricken by the plague. At her death, Maria Soledad left 46 houses, scattered throughout Europe and America. She was beatified on 5 Feb. 1950.

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