Tomorrow Tuesday at 19.30, in collaboration with the Círculo de Orellana, the Cervantes Institute presents a new lecture in its assembly hall as part of its eighth season of the series ‘Spanish Women to Discover’ . María Jesús Cava Mesa, professor of history at the University of Deusto, will speak on the figure of Rafaela de Ybarra (1843-1900), a woman who belonged to Bilbao’s high society and founded the Congregation of the Holy Guardian Angels. Free admission, until full capacity is reached.
At the height of industrialisation in Biscay, her congregation was founded with the aim of promoting flats to house working girls and young women and workshops for their training and support; at the same time, she promoted the creation in Bilbao of numerous institutions for the protection of women. Rafaela de Ybarra was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1984 and is currently in the process of canonisation.
From a traditional position in terms of charity and care for the poor, she evolved to a more committed approach and dedicated herself to working to improve the conditions of the poorest strata of society, especially with children and young women. She promoted flats to house girls and young women who came to work in the midst of industrialisation in Biscay and workshops for their training and sustenance; at the same time, she promoted the creation in Bilbao of numerous institutions for the protection of women.
In 1894, in a small flat in Bilbao, Rafaela Ybarra and other collaborators in her cause undertook to act as mothers and educators of these girls and young women. Since their mission was similar to that of the Guardian Angels, it was agreed to take that name for their work. In 2011 the foundation had 35 houses in Spain and America. In 1897 the foundation stone was laid for the Colegio Ángeles Custodios de Zabalbide in Begoña, which was completed in 1899. It was the first Mother House of the Congregation of the Holy Guardian Angels, which served as a model for those that were later built. Blessed Rafaela died on 23 February 1900 without being able to see her work consolidated.
The event can also be followed live on YouTube via this link.
