Maria Mercede del Cuore di Gesù

Maria Mercedes of the Heart of Jesus was born in Barcelona on March 6, 1880, into a Christian family; one of her brothers was a priest. From childhood she attended the Sisters of the Company of Saint Teresa, and in their motherhouse she received her First Communion. After being orphaned, she studied Fine Arts while devoting herself to works of charity and mortification. She was a generous catechist for young working women and domestic workers, whom she also taught to read and write.
In 1905 she entered the Company of Saint Teresa, adding to her baptismal name Mercedes the title of the Heart of Jesus. She made her profession on May 10, 1907. She taught in various schools of the Company and gradually took on positions of responsibility, always carrying them out with the esteem and appreciation of all.
In 1920 she was transferred to Saint Gervasi in Barcelona, where she was caught up in the turmoil of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936. Having taken refuge with a group of sisters in a private house, on July 23 she was ordered to go to the house of one of her sisters together with Sister Joaquina Miguel. On the way they were stopped and recognized as religious, which she immediately confirmed. They were taken to a house where other religious women and a young religious man were already being held.
She was subjected to a mock execution and various forms of mistreatment. During the night of July 24 she was taken with the others to the Rebassada road, in the Barcelona area, and shot. Mortally wounded, she survived for several hours in immense pain, enduring it with prayer on her lips; her last prayer was the Our Father. When her moans were heard by militiamen who passed by again, they shot her once more, and she died from the bleeding caused by her wounds.
Sister Joaquina Miguel, although shot with her, survived and became an effective witness to the martyrdom. When she closed Maria Mercedes’ eyes, she saw in her “an angel of sorrow.” The decree on martyrdom was promulgated on December 21, 1989. The beatification ceremony was held on April 29, 1990.