The Mother is now venerable!
On July 10, 2020, the Holy Father Francis authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the Decree of Heroic Virtues of Mother María Félix, which declares her Venerable. From this moment on, the Church confirms that it has seen in her an extraordinary exercise of all Christian virtues. With the study and approval of a miracle obtained through her intercession, Mother Felix can be declared Blessed and a second miracle would open the way for her canonization.
On November 28, 2016, the process of preparing the Positio of Mother María Félix ended. This volume of more than eight hundred pages includes a detailed account of the virtues of the Mother; a summary of the statements of the witnesses and the most relevant documents about her life, virtues and reputation for sanctity; a biography based on those same texts and other documents related to the development of the Cause of Canonization. It is the material that the Congregation for the Causes of Saints will study, in order to decide whether to ask the Holy Father for his beatification and subsequent canonization.
Now, after several years of studying the details of her life, and collecting data and testimonies, the diocesan phase of the Cause of Canonization of Mother Félix has just concluded, which will continue its course in the Holy Campus. During the closing of the process, Bishop Antonio María Rouco stated that for the process to conclude as God wants, along with the material that is sent to Rome, “our prayers must also go.” The Cardinal also highlighted the relevance of Mother Felix’s testimony: her life as a student and apostle, her dedication to the formation of youth and her fidelity to the will of God in seeking the paths of religious life, inserting her Congregation into the new millennium.
Cf. Article published in Religious Weekly Alfa y Omega Nº 765 / 22-XII-2011
On January 24, 2009, the Cardinal Archbishop of Madrid, Antonio María Rouco Varela, presided over the first session of the Canonization process of Mother María Félix. Before more than a thousand people gathered at the Mater Salvatoris College in Madrid – many of them from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean – Cardinal Rouco highlighted that, “in the face of some who are late to sainthood? Mother Félix seems to be holiness always accompanied her: in her childhood, in her youth, in her consecrated life. He also stressed that “in the difficult and complex years of the post-council, faced with interpretations of rupture, she knew how to live a spiritual continuity and creative fidelity that have made her congregation enjoy admirable fruitfulness.”