On a day like today, 21 June 1880, María Josefa Recio and María Angustias Giménez left Granada for Ciempozuelos (Madrid) to found the Congregation of the Sisters Hospitallers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Saint Benedict Menni invited them with this great purpose in mind and said to them: “My daughters, if you want to, you can come. I have thought it all over… and believe me, your desire is the will of God”.
They answered: “We, Father, though poor and miserable, only want to abandon ourselves into your hands, so that God may do with us what he wills. We are determined to suffer whatever it takes”.
It was a long journey. They were summoned at 2 a.m. and, on the night of the 20th to the 21st, they left for Ciempozuelos. However, such was the emotion and the call they felt, that this was enough to get them into this new adventure.
They couldn’t pass by the sick, especially the women who suffered from mental illness and were abandoned.
For this reason, after much work and prayer, on 31 May 1881, Saint Benedict Menni, together with María Josefa Recio and María Angustias Giménez, founded our Congregation, a social and health institution with the aim of caring for these mentally ill and excluded women.
Today, the Sisters Hospitallers are still on the way. Although our Congregation is now consolidated, we never stop walking. Today’s world calls us to a constant hospitality, which is no longer limited to women alone. Today’s society needs total accompaniment and physical, emotional and spiritual care.
From the Sisters Hospitallers, we wish to commemorate our foundresses because thanks to their “yes” to Father Menni’s invitation and their departure for Ciempozuelos, our Congregation is alive today. They are the feminine face of Hospitality: passionate women committed to the merciful liberation of other women and our daily beacon in our hospitality.
Finally, we entrust ourselves to our Mother Mary, First Hospitaller, to accompany us on this journey of hospitality. Like our foundresses, we ask her to make us docile and hospitable in the circumstances we encounter in our daily lives, so that we may continue to carry the evangelising message of Jesus as Good Samaritan and Mary as First Hospitaller through the witness of our action!
