Manuela de Jesús Arias Espinosa
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Ixtlán del Río, Nayarit, Mexico
Blessed Manuela de Jesús Arias Espinosa | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Virgin | |
| Born | 7 July 1904 Ixtlán del Río, Nayarit, Mexico |
| Died | 22 July 1981 (aged 77) Rome, Italy |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Beatified | 21 April 2012, Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico City, Mexico by Cardinal Angelo Amato |
| Feast | 22 July |
Manuela de Jesús Arias Espinosa (7 July 1904 – 22 July 1981), also known by her religious name María Inés Teresa of the Blessed Sacrament, was a Mexican religious sister in the Roman Catholic Church and the founder of both the Poor Clare Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament (1945) and the Missionaries of Christ for the Universal Church (1979).[1] She lived during the time of the Cristero War and left the country for some time to avoid the anti-religious persecution at the time.[2]
Espinosa's beatification was celebrated in Mexico on 21 April 2012 with Cardinal Angelo Amato presiding over the celebration on the behalf of Pope Benedict XVI.[3]
Manuela de Jesús Arias Espinosa was born in Mexico in 1904 as the fifth of eight children to the pious Eustaquio Arias Arroniz and María Espinosa López Portillo.[1][3] She made her First Communion in 1911.[2]
Her religious calling blossomed in 1924 after attending a religious congress from 5–12 October 1924 and received inspiration after reading an account of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux.[2][3] But her firm decision to enter the religious life did not come until the Feast of Christ the King in 1926.
Espinosa entered the Ave Maria" convent in Los Angeles on 5 June 1929. Espinosa made her initial vows on 12 December 1930.[3] She made her perpetual vows on 14 December 1933 and took the religious name María Inés Teresa of the Blessed Sacrament; she lived cloistered until 1949.[1] On 23 August 1945 Espinosa founded the Poor Clare Missionary Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament in Cuernavaca in Morelos and received the papal decree of praise in 1949 and the full approval of Pope Pius XII on 22 June 1951.[2]
Her next and final order founded was titled the Missionaries of Christ for the Universal Church and was established on 23 November 1979 in Nievo León.[3] On 9 December 1980 she had an audience with Pope John Paul II in Rome.[2]
Espinosa died in Rome in 1981. Over six thousand of her spiritual writings still remain.[1] Her first order now operates in places such as Ireland and Indonesia while the second operates in Sierra Leone.[3]
