Joaquina Vedruna

Joaquima de Vedruna Vidal de Mas, CCV (or Joaquina, and Joaquina of Saint Francis of Assisi in religion; 16 April 1783 – 28 August 1854) was a Spanish Catholic religious sister and the founder of the Carmelite Sisters of Charity.

First she married a nobleman despite her desire to become a nun though she and her husband both desired the religious life; the couple bore nine children but she and her children fled after Napoleon invaded the nation to which her husband remained to fight as a volunteer and later died leaving her widowed but free to pursue her religious inclinations. Her canonisation was celebrated on 12 April 1959.

Life Joaquima Vedruna Vidal de Mas was born on 16 April 1783 in Barcelona to the nobles Lorenzo de Vedruna – who worked for the government – and Teresa Vidal; her baptism was celebrated on the day of her birth in the parish church of Santa Maria del Pi. Pope John XXIII canonised Joaquina Vedruna de Mas on 12 April 1959 in Saint Peter's Basilica.