Mother Maria Zavala
Religious, Founder

Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala was born on April 27, in Jalisco Mexico. Her father owned a religious goods store located near the Basilica of Our Lady of Zapopan. Marie had a great love for Our Lady of Zapopan and visited the Basilica often.  Maria was taught to treat everyone with love and respect.

As a young woman, Maria planned to marry Gustavo Arreola. However, she broke off her engagement because she felt a call to religious life. Maria believed that God was asking her to give assistance to the poor and sick.  She confided this to her spiritual director, Father Iñiguez.  He, in turn, told her that he felt God was calling him to begin a religious congregation to provide assistance to the sick in hospitals.

Mother Maria and Father Iniguez founded the “Handmaids of St. Margaret Mary and the Poor” in 1901. Compassion and care for the physical and spiritual well-being of the sick were the primary concerns of this new religious congregation.  The congregation grew quickly and Mother Maria served as the Superior General of the order. She taught her sisters that it was only through loving and living poverty that one could be truly "poor with the poor".  At times the sisters were so poor, they would go begging to seek the things the hospital and patients needed. The sisters also worked in parishes and taught catechism.

During the Mexican Revolution, the Catholic Church underwent persecution. Mother Maria put her own life at risk by hiding the priests and the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Guadalajara in her hospital. She gave food and care to any who needed her help. She gave assistance to some people who lived near the hospital who were participating in the persecution of the church. Because of Mother Maria’s kindness to them, they began to defend the sick in the hospital run by the Sisters and to protect them.

Mother Maria dead on June 24, 1963 at the age of 85.  She was declared Venerable by Pope John Paul II on July 1, 2000 and was beatified by him on April 24, 2005.  She was Canonized on May 12, 2013 by Pope Francis.