TORRES ACOSTA, MARIA SOLEDAD, Blessed. - In secular life Emmanuela Bibiana, foundress of the Serve di Maria, ministre degli infermi, born in Madrid on 2 Dec. 1826, died there on 11 Oct. 1887.
Drawn to religious life, after knocking in vain at the door of the Dominicans, she learned that the pious priest Michele Martinez was planning a new institution devoted to the care of the sick in their homes, urgently demanded by the needs of so many poor people, neglected and abandoned. M. Soledad, the last of a group of seven, offered him her assistance; on 15 Aug. 1851 they all consecrated themselves to the new work, and shortly afterward she was appointed its superior. At first it seemed that the little plant was destined to perish at its birth, for several members of the group withdrew, while the others found themselves in the direst poverty; M. Soledad was removed as superior and relegated to a small hospital. But, recognizing her virtue and enlightened zeal, the bishop of Madrid restored her to her office. From then on the new Congregation began to flourish; after the Constitutions had been drafted and approved, recruits and houses increased, and the Institute gave splendid proof of itself in caring for and comforting cholera victims; during the fratricidal revolution of 1867, she tended the wounded on the battlefield at Valenza; shortly afterward, in Barcelona, she founded a house to assist those struck by the plague. At her death, Maria Soledad left 46 houses, scattered throughout Europe and America. She was beatified on 5 Feb. 1950.