Blessed Maria Candida of the Eucharist is a patient and tender model of holiness whose love for God and passion for the Eucharist as the foundation of the Christian life is an inspiration. Maria Candida, born Maria Barba, became a Carmelite in Italy and devoted herself to making the Eucharist the foundation of her spiritual life.

Maria was born in January 1884 to a large Italian family in Southern Italy. She was the tenth of twelve children, although only seven survived childhood. Raised in a devout household, Maria was formed in a rich Catholic imagination. When she would greet her mother coming home from church, Maria would cry: “I want to receive God, too.” Maria received her First Communion when she was ten years old, and, from that moment onward, she experienced an even greater love and devotion for the Eucharist. The young Maria hungered to receive the Eucharist frequently, and developed what she called a “vocation for the Eucharist.”

Alongside this love for Christ in the Eucharist, she began to feel a deep desire for religious life, particularly after watching her cousin take religious vows. Maria’s parents absolutely forbade her from following in her cousin’s footsteps. Just one year before this, however, 1898, Thérèse of Lisieux’s autobiography The Story of a Soul was published. Thérèse’s writings became wildly popular throughout Europe and were soon translated into six different languages and disseminated throughout the continent. Maria read Thérèse’s memoir and Thérèse’s story inspired Maria to persist in her desire for Carmel, despite her parents’ resistance.

Her father passed away in June 1904. Almost exactly ten years later, Maria’s mother died. Maria mourned her parents, cared for her grieving family, and made plans to enter Carmel. She entered in September 1919, and took the name Maria Candida of the Eucharist when she received her habit in April 1920. None of her siblings attended the ceremony.

Maria Candida lived up to her new name and spent hours in prayer in front of the Blessed Sacrament. Maria prolonged her allotted time of adoration, especially every Thursday, when from eleven pm to midnight she would be before the tabernacle. Not only was she enthusiastic about Eucharistic devotion, but the Eucharist was the foundation both of her spiritual life and her theological understanding of the Catholic faith. Maria’s entire spiritual understanding of the world was articulated in Eucharistic terms and viewed through a Eucharistic lens. Her descriptions of the three theological virtues, the evangelical counsels she vowed to as a religious, and the role of the Virgin Mary were all grounded in the Eucharist.

For example, Maria wrote: “When I receive Jesus in Communion, Mary is always present. I want to receive Jesus from her hands, she must make me one with Him. I cannot separate Mary from Jesus. Hail, O Body born of Mary. Hail Mary, dawn of the Eucharist!”

Sr. Ann Astell, of Notre Dame’s theology department, writes in her book Eating Beauty that the Eucharist is one of the primary ways for Catholics to understand beauty: “Fittingly chosen by Christ as a sign of human art, the bread becomes through consecration the appearance of Beauty itself, the sacramental form of Christ, the Word through whom God the Father created all things” (13). For Maria Candida, the Eucharist truly was the “source and summit” of the Christian life. It was her way to understand beauty, truth, and love. On the feast of Corpus Christi, 1933, Maria began writing down her meditations on the Eucharist and her own spiritual experiences in prayer. This was published as Eucharist: True Jewel of Eucharistic Spirituality in 1936.

After spending her years in Carmel in writing and in prayer, Maria Candida passed away of cancer in June 1949. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2004.

Blessed Maria Candida of the Eucharist, devoted disciple of Christ’s Sacrament of Love—pray for us!