ST MARIA SOLEDAD TORRES ACOSTA, VIRGIN AND FOUNDRESS - 11 OCTOBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN OCTOBER

Saints celebrated on the 11th of October

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

ST MARIA SOLEDAD TORRES ACOSTA, VIRGIN AND FOUNDRESS 

Manuela Torres Acosta was born on December 2, 1826 as the second of five children to Francisco Torres and Antonia Acosta in Madrid. She received her education from the Vincentian Sisters and often visited the sick in her neighbourhood. The girl also helped at a free school for the poor that the order managed.

With the help of her spiritual director Gabino Sánchez who was an Augustinian Recollect she founded the Servants of Mary. The dedication of this Order was brought to the attention of the public after their notable and extensive care of the sick during the cholera epidemic in 1865.

Although it experienced some hiccups, and its foundress also found herself in the crossfire from time to time, the Order continued to grow in number and in 1875 began to serve in Havana. The order received definitive papal approval in 1876 from Pope Pius IX.

Our Saint died from pneumonia on October 11, 1887. Her remains were buried in a simple plot around fellow religious of her order but were exhumed and transferred to the chapel of the motherhouse on January 18, 1893; her remains were deemed to be intact and it was reported that her remains exuded a blood-like liquid and a sweet odour. But it was not long after upon another inspection that her relics were limited to bones which meant decomposition had advanced rapidly within a very short time; this was perhaps due to the first exhumation and transferral. She was canonised by Pope Paul VI. 

(Information from Wikipedia)