Joaquina Vedruna
founder of the Carmelite Sisters of Charity
Feast: 19 May (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Joaquina de Vedruna was born in Barcelona on 16 April 1783 into a Catalan middle-class family; at twelve she asked to join the Carmelites. In 1799 she married the lawyer and landowner Teodoro de Mas and they had eight children.
Widowed in 1816, she moved with her children to Vic, and later founded in Barcelona the Carmelite Sisters of Charity, bearing every kind of suffering with serenity. She died of cholera at Vic on 28 August 1854.
The miracles
The Dicastery's biography does not describe the miracles approved in the cause.
Why that counted as sanctity
A wife, mother and widow who founded a congregation, showing that holiness is for every state of life.
Connected on this site
- Francis of Assisi Saint“Joaquima de Vedruna Vidal de Mas, CCV (or Joaquina, and Joaquina of Saint Francis of Assisi in religion; 16 April 1783 – 28 August 1854) was a Spanish Catholic religious sister and the founder of the Carmelite Sisters of Charity.” — Wikipedia
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints - biography: Gioacchina de Vedruna de Mas
- Wikidata Q288442 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Joaquina Vedruna de Mas (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.