| Rafaela Ybarra de Vilallonga | |
|---|---|
| Blessed | |
| Born | 16 January 1843 Bilbao, Spain |
| Died | 23 February 1900 (aged 57) Bilbao, Spain |
| Honored in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Beatified | 30 September 1984, Vatican City by John Paul II |
| Feast | 23 February |
Rafaela Ybarra de Vilallonga (1843–1900) was a member of Bilbao's XIXth century wealthy gentry and mother to seven children who - with the approval of her husband José Vilallonga - founded the Congregación de los Santos Angeles Custodios (Religious Congregation of the Guardian Angels). She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1984 and is currently undergoing the canonization process.[1]
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Rafaela Ybarra de Vilallonga was born in Bilbao in northern Spain in 1843 in an affluent Catholic family.
She married José de Vilallonga in 1861.
As Bilbao was being transformed by a speedy yet chaotic industrialization process, she set up homes for working-class children and teenage girls as well as workshops for their training. She promoted a number of institutions for the welfare of women across the city.[2]
On December 8 1894 and together with three of her earliest supporters, she made a pledge to become a mother and educator to all poor and needy children in her native Bilbao. Since her mission was similar in nature to that of the Guardian Angels (Ángeles Custodios in Spanish), she took that name for her new foundation - which in 2011 had 35 homes scattered across Spain and America.[3]
On August 2 1897 she placed the foundation stone of the Colegio Ángeles Custodios in Zabalbide (Bilbao), which was officially opened on March 24 1899. It was the first house of the Congregation and the referent for the ones that followed.
Blessed Rafaela Ybarra died on February 23 1900 before her novel Congregation had been fully established.[4]
From Rafela Ybarra de Vilallonga: