On October 14, 2018, Pope Francis canonized seven new saints of the Church. In his stirring homily at the canonization Mass, Pope Francis invited the congregation: “Let us ask ourselves where we are in our story of love with God. Do we content ourselves with a few commandments or do we follow Jesus as lovers, really prepared to leave behind something for him?” Each of the saints that were canonized on that day reveals, in their own unique way, his and her total dedication to the radical call of the Gospel to leave everything behind.

St. Nazaria Ignacia, faced many obstacles in trying to follow God’s will for her life. Nazaria Ignacia was born on January 10, 1889, to a fairly wealthy family with many children in Madrid. When she was not even ten years old, as she received her First Communion, Nazaria heard Christ’s voice call out to her: “You, Nazaria—follow me.” From that moment on, Nazaria had an intense desire to join the religious life, which, one would imagine, would have delighted her parents. Her parents were neither thrilled nor delighted by her religious fervor, but rather, they were both frustrated and annoyed with Nazaria’s piety. Her parents grounded the young Nazaria from going to Mass and prevented her from receiving sacraments.

As a young girl, Nazaria was sent to study in Seville, and her grandmother ensured that Nazaria was raised in the Catholic faith, was confirmed, and even encouraged her to become a third order Franciscan. When Nazaria’s father emigrated to Mexico, Nazaria and several of her younger sisters moved in with her grandmother before joining him later in the New World. Her father allowed Nazaria to join a religious order once she arrived and Nazaria promptly entered the order of the Little Sisters of the Abandoned Elderly in July of 1908. She was sent to Bolivia, and, despite a brief return to Spain for her novitiate, Nazaria lived in Bolivia as a Little Sister until 1925, when she began a new religious order with Filippo Cortesi.

Nazaria gathered together ten other women to found the Missionaries of the Crusade in Bolivia in December 1926. They received diocesan approval a few months later, and, when Nazaria traveled to Rome to meet Pope Pius XI in 1934, she received his blessing and praise for her work of founding the order. The Missionaries finally received papal approval from Pope Pius XII in 1947, after Nazaria’s death.

Nazaria died in Buenos Aires, Argentina on May 14, 1943. Her order still operates throughout the Spanish-speaking world today, a living testament to Nazaria’s great love for Christ and her desire to serve him wholeheartedly, with her whole life.

St. Nazaria Ignacia, you followed the voice of God wholeheartedly, despite many obstacles—pray for us!