The 12th of August marks the 86th anniversary of the death of Blessed Victoria Díez, a young teacher and member of the TA who gave her life for her faith in the Cordoban village of Hornachuelos in 1936.
Her remains are in the Spanish city of Cordoba in a crypt at the local TA headquarters located in the Plaza de la Concha. A Mass will be celebrated there on the day of her anniversary. TA groups in other places will also celebrate this feast.
Linked together
Victoria Díez was able to meet personally with Pedro Poveda on several occasions on trips to Madrid. On one of these occasions, in March 1934, Pedro Poveda gave her a book entitled Historia de la Pasión de Nuestro Señor Jesucristo by Remigio Vilariño Ugarte S.J. and wrote a dedication to her in it. This dedicated copy is preserved in Madrid. Poveda wrote, “Read this book with love and you will end up being devoted to the sufferings and Passion of Jesus Christ”, and he signed it with his initials.
Back then in 1934, neither of them could have imagined that this shared “passion for Jesus” would lead them to give their lives in the same month of the same year. Nor could they have imagined that they would both be raised to the altar together in Rome in 1993.
Victoria stood out for her educational work with girls and young women in the village of Hornachuelos. She was a teacher there at the village school and she also taught women workers in evening literacy groups. She was very active in the parish where she was a member of the catechists’ team and led Catholic Action youth groups.
At the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, she was arrested with a group of men from the village and shot while confessing her faith and adherence to Jesus Christ.
Attracted by a mission
Victoria Díez had been introduced to the Association when she was preparing for competitive examinations in Seville. That was the city where she was born in 1903 and where she studied to become a teacher. Once she had passed the competitive examinations, she wrote to Josefa Segovia in 1926 expressing her desire to join the Teresian Association:
“Every day I thank Our Lord more and more for having put me in contact with an Association that completely fulfils my ideals. Its apostolic mission attracts me greatly! Since I came to know the aims it pursues, I cannot help but love it and I believe that only by belonging to it will I be able to find happiness.”
The lay vocation
Victoria was beatified by John Paul II in 1993 together with Pedro Poveda. Her fame has transcended Spain, her native country, and today she is celebrated and remembered in different parts of the world where there is admiration for her work as a teacher committed to serving the people, and also for the example she gave of the lay vocation. She followed the call to holiness in her life, as a member of the Teresian Association. Examples of her intense spiritual life are recorded in some simple writings she left behind.
Accèss to the website Victoria Díez desde Hornachuelos
Song by Elia Fleta with images of the villages where Victoria Díez was a teacher and the Rincón Mine where she was shot.
TA Info.
TA Translators Team.
