Suggest an Edit — Ana María Janer Anglarill

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Biography

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Ana María Janer Anglarill (also known as Anna Maria Janer i Anglarill) was born on 18 December 1800 in Cervera, in Catalonia, Spain, and was baptized the same day in the parish church of Santa Maria. She grew up in a Catholic household during a politically turbulent period in Spain. From youth she was drawn to the care of the sick and the poor. In 1819 she began work as a nurse at the Hospital de la Santa Creu in Cervera. In 1829 she entered religious life among the Sisters of Charity who served that hospital, committing herself to nursing and to the spiritual and material needs of patients.

The First Carlist War in the 1830s disrupted hospital work across Catalonia. Troops occupied the Cervera hospital and Janer was forced to leave the town. She continued to care for the wounded, the displaced, and the poor in other Catalan localities, including Solsona. After the conflict she returned to hospital service and in the mid-1840s was entrusted with the direction of the Hospital de Cervera. Direct experience of war, poverty, and the needs of children and the elderly shaped her later decision to found a new religious family rather than remain solely within existing hospital congregations.

With the support of Josep Caixal i Estradé, Bishop of Urgell, she established the Sisters of the Holy Family of Urgell (Hermanas de la Sagrada Familia de Urgell) on 29 June 1859. The congregation combined care of the sick and elderly with the education of children, especially girls, and was placed under the patronage of the Holy Family. Janer served as superior, forming the first sisters and opening houses in Catalonia. The institute later expanded elsewhere in Spain and to Latin America. Its spirituality emphasized humble service, family-like community life, and fidelity to the Church in a century marked by anticlerical conflict and social dislocation.

Janer spent her last years with her sisters in Talarn, in the province of Lleida. She died there of natural causes on 11 January 1885. The cause for her beatification was introduced in the twentieth century. She was beatified on 8 October 2011 during a ceremony in La Seu d'Urgell presided over by Cardinal Angelo Amato on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI. Her liturgical memorial is kept on 11 January. She has not been canonized. The Sisters of the Holy Family of Urgell continue her work in education and healthcare.

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