Maria Micaela Desmaisières was born in Madrid to a noble family. Her mother died when she was a child, and she spent much of her early life in the company of her brother, the Spanish ambassador to Paris and Brussels. It was a life filled with balls, banquets, and lavish entertainments. But she longed for some deeper purpose.  

She waited until the age of thirty-five to find her way. While visiting St. John of God Hospital in Madrid, she met a young woman, a banker’s daughter, who through a series of deceptions and unfortunate circumstances had found herself trapped in a life of prostitution. Many Catholics might have seen in this “fallen woman” a sinner. Maria saw a victim in need of support and rescue. She opened a shelter where such women could find help. This impulse led her in time to found a new congregation, the Handmaids of the Blessed Sacrament and of Charity. Their work was addressed to “women of the streets.” She was elected mother superior in 1859.  

In 1865 she joined her sisters in attending to the victims of a cholera outbreak in Valencia. There she fell ill and died, “a victim of charity,” on August 24. She was canonized in 1934.  

“I saw Him large, benevolent, loving and merciful, and I decided to serve no one but Him, who has everything necessary to fill my heart.” —St. Maria Micaela Desmaisières