Saint of the Day – 30 July – Saint María de Jesús Sacramentado Venegas de La Torre (1868-1959)

Saint of the Day – 30 July – Saint María de Jesús Sacramentado Venegas de La Torre (1868-1959) Religious Nun and Founder of the Daughters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Guadalajara of which she is the Patron and of Nurses – Born María Natividad Venegas de la Torre on 8 September 1868 in La Tapona, Zapotlanejo, Jalisco, Mexico and died on 30 July 1959 in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico of natural causes, aged 90.

María de Jesús Sacramentado – María de Jesús Sacramentado Venegas de la Torre, was born in a town in the municipality of Zapotlanejo, Jalisco (Mexico) on 8 September 1868, baptised with the name of María Natividad.   The life of the young María Natividad was developed in a climate of simplicity, without extraordinary events, her childhood and adolescence with the nuances that life gives.  At the age of 19, she was orphaned and lived thereafter in the care of a paternal aunt.   María Natividad felt a strong attraction towards religious life and on 8 December 1989, she entered the flourishing Association of Daughters of Mary, in her native town.

On 8 December 1905 she attended some Spiritual Exercises and as a result of these, she decided to be part of the group of “Daughters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus”, who cared for the sick in the Hospital of the Sacred Heart, newly founded by Canon Don Atenógenes Silva and Alvarez Tostado.  She distinguished herself by her humility, simplicity, affable relationship with the sisters, the sick and people in general, this immense charity drunk from the source of the Divine Heart of Jesus, whom she loved, in whom she always waited and whose devotion sought to instil in all.

She manifested a special treatment for the bishops and priests, attending them with true love, respect and obedience, seeing in them the prolongation of Christ High and Eternal Priest.   In the year of 1912 she was elected as the new Prioress, which position she held until 25 January 1921 when, at the first canonical elections, she was elected Superior General, shortly after, she wrote the Constitutions that would govern the Daughters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, these were approved in 1930, thus recognising the new Institute.

On 30 July 1959, she gave her soul to the Creator, full of peace, after receiving sacramental aid.   The miracle recognised for her Canonisation concerned Mr Anastasio Ledezma Mora, who was taken to the Hospital of the Sacred Heart to undergo a surgical operation.   After anesthesia, a cardiac arrest was manifested, which gradually increased until it ended in a complete arrest of the heart and arteries.   Immediately, resuscitation therapies were tried, although in vain, so the patient fell into a deep coma.

The medical nurses who were in the operating room, as well as the wife of the sick and the sisters (Daughters of the Sacred Heart), invoked the intercession of the Blessed Mary of Jesus Sacramented.   After 10 or 12 minutes, his heartbeat was restored to normal amazing the doctors especially as  the patient suffered no damage to the brain.   A few days later he underwent a hemicolectomy with definitive colostomy without any complications and left the hospital after recuperation, a perfectly well man….Vatican.va