Nazaria Ignacia

Nazaria Ignacia March Mesa (10 January 1889 – 6 July 1943) – in religion Nazaria of Saint Teresa of Jesus – was a Spanish religious sister and the founder of the Missionaries of the Crusade. Mesa immigrated from Spain to Mexico where she joined a religious order that saw her minister in Bolivia where she remained for most of her life. She served brief stints in Spain to spread the religious order she founded after she left her own order and relocated to Argentina where she later died.

Her beatification cause commenced under Pope Paul VI on 6 September 1966 and she was titled as a Servant of God while Pope John Paul II later confirmed her heroic virtue and named her to be venerable on 1 September 1988; he later beatified her on 27 September 1992 in Saint Peter's Square. Pope Francis confirmed a miracle attributed to her in 2018 and she was canonized on 14 October 2018.

Life Nazaria Ignacia March Mesa was born in 1889 in Madrid as the fourth of ten children to José Alejandro March Reus (3 April 1850–???) and Nazaria de Mesa Ramos de Peralta (28 July 1853–???). The infant was baptized the month of her birth in the local parish church of Saint Joseph and she later received her First Communion in 1898. In 1898 she heard the voice of Jesus Christ call out to her in which He said to her – "You: Nazaria – follow Me". Her parents were not pleased with her desire to enter the religious life and forbade it while also forbidding her to take the sacraments.

Theologians provided their assent to the cause on 24 November 1987, as did the members of the Congregation on 12 April 1988. Pope John Paul II approved that Mesa had lived a life of heroic virtue and named her as venerable on 1 September 1988. The miracle needed for beatification was investigated and then validated in Rome on 25 February 1989, while a medical board later met on 3 October 1991, and approved it. Theologians also assented to it on 20 December 1991, as did the Congregation on 21 January 1992. John Paul II approved that the healing was, indeed, a miracle on 7 March 1992, and beatified Mesa in Saint Peter's Square on 27 September 1992.

Failed miracle The supposed miracle that could have led to canonization was investigated and then validated on 12 December 2003 though could not proceed further because the medical board disapproved of this in their meeting held on 3 July 2008. The postulation was informed of this failure and so the case was discarded since it was debunked.