María del Refugio Aguilar y Torres

María del Refugio Aguilar y Torres was born on 21 September 1866 in San Miguel de Allende, in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico. She grew up in a Catholic household and, as a young woman, married Ángel Cancino. The couple had a daughter. After only a short period of married life her husband died, and she was left a widow with the care of her child. Widowhood did not diminish her religious practice; she continued to live in the world as a mother while giving increasing time to prayer, the sacraments, and works of charity.

In the early twentieth century she founded in Mexico City a new religious congregation, the Mercedarian Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament (Hermanas Mercedarias del Santísimo Sacramento). The institute was intended to combine frequent adoration of the Eucharist with the Mercedarian spirit of mercy and with an active apostolate, especially the Christian education of children and assistance to the poor. Having provided for her daughter's upbringing, she herself embraced the religious life of the community she had established and served as its foundress and superior, forming the first sisters in a simple, Eucharistic, and educational charism.

The congregation came into being and grew during decades of political upheaval in Mexico, including the Revolution and the later phase of severe restrictions on the Catholic Church. Religious houses, schools, and public worship were frequently targeted or suppressed. María del Refugio led her sisters through these trials, seeking to maintain community life, the education of girls, and devotion to the Blessed Sacrament even when circumstances forced a more hidden existence. Despite the obstacles, the community endured and spread beyond its original house.

She died in Mexico City on 24 April 1937. Decades later her cause of canonization was introduced. In 2018 Pope Francis authorized the decree recognizing that she had lived the theological and cardinal virtues to a heroic degree, and she is therefore honored with the title Venerable. She has not been beatified or canonized. No official feast day or list of patronages has been assigned to her by the Holy See. Her spiritual daughters continue the work of the congregation she founded, and she is remembered in Mexican Catholic circles as a widow, foundress, and promoter of Eucharistic life.