María Antonia Bandrés Elósegui

María Antonia Bandrés Elósegui was born in Tolosa – in the Kingdom of Spain – as the second of fifteen children born to Ramon Bandrés and Teresa Elósegui.[1] Her paternal uncle and godfather was Antonio Bandrés. Her siblings and parents often referred to her as "Antonita".[2]

Bandrés Elósegui attended a school that the Daughters of Spain managed in her town and she later entered the religious life in that order in Salamanca on 8 December 1915 – the Feast of the Immaculate Conception – during World War I. In 1913 while making the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius she met the Daughter's founder Candida Maria of Jesus who said to her: "You will be a Daughter of Jesus".[2] She made her solemn religious profession on 31 May 1918 and then fell ill that June, marking the start of a long illness and then death ten months later.[1] Her confessor around this time was Ilario Oscoz.[2]

Her doctor – Filiberto Villalobos – testified that he was moved as he cared for the nun due to her ardent spirit and her commitment to the faith. Her death impacted the agnostic doctor as well as Miguel de Unamuno and Indalecio Prieto who left either oral or written testimonies about the impact her death had on them.[1]

She died on 27 April 1919 while singing a Marian song.

The beatification process commenced with the inauguration of an informative process in Salamanca that opened on 23 January 1962. This concluded the following year after her writings were checked by theologians who certified their orthodoxy, on 10 July 1970, leading to the formal introduction of her cause on 11 May 1982, which entitled her to the title Servant of God. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints validated these two previous processes in Rome on 27 January 1983 and received the official Positio dossier in 1989 for further evaluation.

Theologians assented to the contents of the dossier on 28 June 1994 while the cardinal and bishop members of the C.C.S.did so on 10 January 1995. She became titled as Venerable on 6 April 1995 after Pope John Paul II confirmed the fact that she had lived a life of heroic virtue.

The miracle required for her beatification was investigated in Spain and received full validation on 12 May 1995 from the C.C.S. before a medical team examined the miracle in question and voiced their approval of it on 11 January 1996; theologians also assented on 29 March 1996 and the C.C.S. as well on 16 April 1996. The pope issued his final approval of this on 30 April 1996 and later beatified her in Saint Peter's Square on 12 May 1996.

The current postulator for this cause is Ana Maria Cinco.

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