Venerable Maria Consuelo Soledad Sanjurjo Santos was born in Puerto Rico on November 15, 1892. By the time she was nine years old both of her parents had passed away. Extended family then placed her and her sister Antonia in a boarding school run by the Servants of Mary, Ministers to the Sick. It was there that she grew up and spent her adolescence, befriending and learning from the Sisters about their way of life. Maria was so attracted to the religious life that she entered the Servants of Mary, Ministers to the Sick as a postulant as soon as she turned 16. Even as a child she was known to have deep devotion to Jesus.
 
Since the Servants of Mary didn’t have any houses for formation in Puerto Rico, Maria had to begin her postulancy in Madrid. After four years she was transferred to Cuba where under her new name, Maria Soledad, she took her perpetual vows on April 30, 1921. She remained in Havana and in 1929 she became the Secretary and Conciliar of the Congregation of the Servants of Mary. After 10 years in that position, she became Mother Superior of a couple different houses following which she was appointed the Provincial Superior of the Antilles which included Haiti, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic.
 
Now, leading the Servants of Mary in the Caribbean, Mother Maria Soledad set her heart on scaling up the apostolic work they were doing in that area of the world. She founded communities for the Sisters all over the islands. She especially hoped to begin a novitiate program in her home island, Puerto Rico, so when young women wanted to enter into the congregation they wouldn’t have travel, like she did, to Madrid first. This hope was realized in 1954 upon the opening of a novitiate in Ponce, Puerto Rico.
 
After 40 years of serving at her congregation’s headquarters in Cuba, Mother Maria Soledad moved the Provincial House of the Servants of Mary to Puerto Rico in 1962. Cuba had become unstable, and she concluded that it would be safer for the Sisters to continue their work with education and with the sick from a Provincial capital in Puerto Rico instead. Following a heart attack, she completed her time as Provincial Superior in 1966 and went on to embrace a simple life of love of God and service to her congregation. She spent her time focusing on sewing clothes for her sisters, daily prayer, and assisting the sick.
 
After 62 years of consecrated life, Mother Maria Soledad died on April 23, 1973, in San Juan and was recognized for her heroic virtue by Pope Francis on January 15, 2019, and named Venerable. She is now one step away from beatification.