María Carmen Rendiles Martínez was born on August 11, 1903 in Caracas, Venezuela. Her childhood was marked by pain and responsibility: after the death of her father and her younger brother, she became an indispensable support for her mother in caring for her younger siblings. Very soon she learned to live motherhood from tenderness, protection, and daily self-giving.
From a young age, she felt in her heart the call to consecrated life. However, a difficulty seemed to close the path for her: she was born without her left arm, and because of that disability, she was rejected in several attempts to enter religious communities.
Entry into the Servants of Jesus
In 1927, her perseverance found an answer: she was admitted to the Congregation of the Servants of Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament, founded in France in the mid-19th century. There she found her spiritual home and joyfully embraced the charism of profound love for the Eucharist and service to priests.
Sister María Carmen stood out for her humility, her ardent faith, and her ability to transform physical limitations into an opportunity for fuller self-giving to Christ and the Church.
Foundress of a new institute
Decades later, when the congregation decided to transform into a Secular Institute, the sisters from Venezuela and Colombia expressed their desire to continue living as religious. With the impetus of Sister María Carmen and the approval of the Holy See, the new institute of the Servants of Jesus was born in 1965, which in 1985 was recognized as a religious institute of pontifical right.
From the beginning, first provisionally and then by election in 1969, Sister María Carmen was the superior general. Under her guidance, the congregation experienced a time of expansion and consolidation: the sisters worked in parishes and seminaries, taught catechism, taught in schools, cared for the poor, and made liturgical vestments for priests.
The cross accepted with love
In 1974, a car accident left her with significant physical sequelae. During the painful convalescence, far from complaining, she repeated with serenity:
“It is one more small splinter from the Cross of Christ, and I carry it with enthusiasm and joy”.
From then on, she relied on crutches and a wheelchair, but she never stopped visiting her sisters and encouraging them in their mission. Her spiritual strength shone even more amid the weakness of the body.
Death and recognition by the Church
Sister María Carmen Rendiles gave her soul to God on May 9, 1977 in Caracas, after a life of unwavering fidelity to the Lord and the Church. Her example of joy in the cross and Eucharistic love marked her community forever.
Pope Francis beatified her on June 16, 2018, recognizing her life as a luminous testimony of holiness amid human fragility.
On October 19, 2025, Pope Leo XIV will canonize her, inscribing her in the catalog of saints as a model of a consecrated woman who, even amid her limitations, embraced the cross and transformed it into a path of charity and hope.
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