Joaquina Vedruna de Mas

Who was Joaquina Vedruna de Mas?

Saint Joaquina de Vedruna was a Spanish nun, founder of the Carmelite Sisters of the Charity. She was born into a noble family. In 1799, she married the lawyer and landowner Teodoro de Mas, with whom she had nine children. Her husband died in 1816 and she moved with her children to their estate in Vic. Here, she began her charitable activities with the sick and young women. Her spiritual director, the Capuchin Esteban de Olot, suggested she establish an apostolic congregation devoted to education and charity. The bishop of Vic, Pablo Jesús Corcuera, told her the institute should be of Carmelite inspiration. The same bishop wrote the rule on 6 February 1826, and 20 days later she and another 8 women professed their vows. Within the next few years, Joaquina's Carmelites founded several houses in Catalonia. During the First Carlist War, she had to flee from Spain because she had founded a hospital in the Carlist town of Berga that was threatened by the fighting. As a result, she went to Roussillon, France, where she stayed from 1836 to 1842.