By Christina Hermoso
Devotees celebrate on August 9, the Feast of Saint Candida Maria de Jesus, the revered foundress of Hijas de Jesus (Daughters of Jesus), a congregation of religious women dedicated to the education of women and the youth. Saint Candida is one of recently canonized saints these modern times having been declared saint in the year 2010.
Saint Candida (Photo via Wikipedia / MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
Working in about 17 countries across the world, the missionaries of the congregation arrived in the Philippines in 1932. On Friday, it oversees communities and schools in Manila, Paranaque, Cebu, Iloilo, Camiguin, and Davao.
Born Juana Josefa Cipitria y Barriola on May 31, 1845, in Basque province of Guipuzcoa in Spain, St. Candida worked as a house help to help support her family. Poverty did not deter her to live a life of piety and virtue. At the age of 24, she received a message from the Blessed Mother to establish a congregation for women dedicated to the salvation of souls through the education of women and the youth.