On June 15, 2023, we invite you to celebrate the feast of St. Maria Micaela from the House of Valencia, Spain. After the recent reopening of the Museum of the foundress of the Sisters Adorers, Handmaids of the Blessed Sacrament and of Charity, we want to continue sharing and celebrating her life with the entire Adorer Family.

Transmission from Valencia

To this end, on that day, starting at 18:30 (Spanish time), we will broadcast the Eucharist live from Valencia on the Congregation’s Youtube channel, through the following link:

It is precisely in this Spanish city where the body of St. Maria Micaela rests.

Don’t miss this opportunity to participate in the feast of St. Maria Micaela, we are waiting for you!

Saint Mary Micaela

Maria Micaela Desmaisières y López de Dicastillo was born in Madrid in 1809 into a noble family. During a visit to the sick in the hospital of San Juan de Dios in Madrid (Spain), she discovered the problems of exploitation, loneliness and helplessness in which many young girls and women living in prostitution found themselves. This gave rise to the first idea of opening a house to take in these young women when they left hospital and help them to rebuild their lives with dignity.

In 1845, Micaela founded the first house at 8 Dos Amigos Street in Madrid.  In 1850, St. Maria Micaela took over full management of the house, stayed with the girls and took the name of Mother Sacramento. She sought the collaboration of teachers to help her in the education of the women.

The work of Santa María Micaela spread to other cities in Spain: Zaragoza (1856), Valencia (1858), Barcelona (1861), Burgos (1863), Santander (1864) and Pinto (Madrid branch, 1864).

Other women (teachers at the College and young women from her social environment) joined Micaela, attracted by her way of living the love of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and her dedication to the service of women in prostitution. The Congregation of the Adorers, Handmaids of the Blessed Sacrament and of Charity was born.

In 1856, the first group with ecclesiastical approval, began to live this new charism of Adoration and Liberation with their Foundress.

In August 1865, when she heard that a cholera epidemic was breaking out in Valencia, Micaela decided to travel by train to help the nuns and women of the house during the epidemic. There she became irreversibly infected with the disease. She died there, a victim of charity, on 24 August 1865.

She was canonized by Pope Pius XI on 4 March 1934.

Today, more than 165 years later, the Congregation is present in 24 countries in 4 different continents.