María Rafols Bruna
Spanish nun (1781-1853)
Feast: 30 August (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
María Rafols Bruna was born at Villafranca del Penedès on 5 November 1781, the sixth of ten children of a miller. With a priest and eleven other young women she set out to serve the sick, following Christ who gave his life as a ransom for many.
Contemplative in action, she prayed long in the chapel of the Hospital of Grace in Zaragoza and served all its sick: invalids, the mentally ill, abandoned women and children. There she founded the Sisters of Charity of St Anne and governed them with courage through many difficulties.
The miracles
The Dicastery's biography does not describe the miracles approved in the cause.
Why that counted as sanctity
A miller's daughter who served every kind of sick person in the great hospital of Zaragoza.
The cause
María Rafols Bruna has been beatified; the cause continues. Favours received, and offers of help, go to the postulation, the office that carries the cause forward: Sisters of Charity of Saint Anne: Blessed Maria Rafols.
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints - biography: María Rafols
- Wikidata Q3825669 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — María Rafols Bruna (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.