Roman Martyrology: In Spain, Nun. Member of the Calasanzian Institute, Daughters of the Divine Shepherdess. Superior of the convent-school in Martos, Spain. Martyred in the Spanish Civil War.

Beatification date: 13 October 2013 by Pope Francis.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY

Francisca Inés María de la Antigua Valverde Gonzales "was born the 20th of April 1888, in Vicálvaro (Madrid), from parents who were poor and supported their family as daily wage workers. For this reason she lived part of her childhood in an orphanage of Alcalá de Henares (Madrid), run by the Daughters of Charity ". There she knew the Piarist Priests of Alcalá de Henares’ Community, who used to lead spiritually some of the orphanage girls, with Francisca being one of them. The strong religious formation received in that time helped young Francisca to nurture the desire of a total consecration to God and to discover the calasanctian vocation.

Her religious formation cuminates with the solemn vows she professed the 17th of September 1916 in Monforte de Lemos. After a year and a half she was transferred to the new foundation in Martos (province of Jaén), where in 1922 she’s appointed Superior of the community. This is her duty until her death: first in Martos, then in Sanlucar de Barramenda (1924-1931), and again in Martos. In the school she teaches embroidery, handicrafts and drawing. Those who knew her more closely remember her as a simple, kind, balanced and very careful person, capable of instilling Christian values and of covering at the same time the needs of the different persons that surrounded her. She feels her own physical fragility when for health reasons she has to give up the direct contact with her students. She was considered timid, perhaps because she was small and physically fragile, or perhaps because she was not able to hide the fear she felt before human violence.

But it was really amazing the courage she manifested in front of an armed enemy who the first day of the war (18th of July) entered shouting in the school of Martos during Mass time. M. Victoria succeeded to avoid the profanation of the Eucharist. During the days after, the school was invaded several times and the sisters had to seek refuge in the houses of friend families. The last that left the school was M. Victoria, together with two other sisters. She never followed those who counseled to abandon the city. She said she was not going to go away while there was even one calasanctian sister in Martos. She was often forced to appear before the republican authority to guarantee for the other sisters, who were living as real prisoners, blamed for being believers and religious.

What was happening made her perfectly aware of the risk she was running and thus she started preparing for martyrdom, asking God to protect all the members of her community. In fact, all were spared, except her. The 11th of January they took her prison, together with other two religious of other congregations, to a place distant 14 km from Martos. Close to the cemetery of Casillas de Martos, after assisting at the execution of 50 people, the three sisters were tortured and murdered with a firearm in the night of the 12/13th of January 1937.

As their bodies were buried all together, M. Victoria’s remains couldn’t be identified in the exhumation undertaken in 1939, and are nowadays kept in the crypt of Nuestra Señora de la Villa de Martos shrine. The process regarding her martyrdom was undertaken in the Diocese of Jaén in the years 1996-1997. The next stage took place in the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and concluded with the permission given by Pope Benedict XVI, the 28th of June 2012, to publish the decree on the martyrdom of the Servant of God. The general postulators of the Order participated during the works undertaken in the roman curia.