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Juana María Condesa Lluch was born on March 30, 1862, in Valencia, Kingdom of Spain. She was the third of four children of Doctor Lluís Condesa and Joana Lluch. The parents were strong Catholic Christians, and they were Third Order Carmelites. Because the family was well off financially, Juana received an excellent education.
Like her parents, Juana also had a strong attraction to her faith, and she was especially attracted to the Holy Family: Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, Mary, and Joseph.
During her childhood and teen years, Juana became aware of the poor conditions of workers who were often treated very poorly in factories. This was a period of history known the Industrial Revolution. For the first time in memory, men, who were not welcomed to choose the role of homemaker, had to leave their homes and get work in impersonal factories. And for the first time in history, children often grew up not knowing what their fathers “did for a living,” for the fathers would leave the house in the early morning hours and not return until dinnertime or later.
When she was 18, Juana felt a call to found a religious community of women who would devote themselves to somehow fight against the inhuman conditions faced by workers of the time, most of them men and male teenagers.
When she approached the archbishop of Valencia for permission to found a new religious order, however, he refused her request based on her young age. Juana did, however, receive permission to open a shelter for workers. The shelter would provide both spiritual and material help to workers and their families. She also opened a school for their children on March 25, 1884.
On May 15, 1891, Pope Leo XIII issued an encyclical called Rerum Novarum (New Things), which was subtitled, “Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor.” This document validated much of what Juana stood for, such as the right of workers to have just wages, form unions, and be treated with respect.
On December 10, 1892, Cardinal Ciriaco María Sancha y Hervás (now Blessed) presented Juana with a religious habit, and on March 19, 1895, Juan and some other women made their first religious vows. Her new order was named the Handmaids of Mary Immaculate, Protectress of Workers, and received final papal approval on January 27, 1947, by Pope Venerable Pius XII.
Sister Juana died on January 16, 1916, in her hometown of Valencia, and she was beatified on March 23, 2003. Blessed Juan María’s feast day is January 16.
