Blessed Bl. MARIA de la CONCEPCION BARRECHEGUREN GARCIA (CONCHITA)
Maria de la Concepción (Conchita) Barrecheguren was born on 27 November 1905 in Granada, to the Venerable Francisco Barrecheguren Montagut and Concha García Calvo, both from well-to-do families and animated by great faith and sound moral principles. The newborn was baptised in the Parish of the Sacrario in Granada on 8 December 1905, with the name Maria de la Concepción del Perpetuo Socorro, Francesca de Paola, Eloisa, Primitiva de la Santissima Trinidad, although she was always familiarly called 'Conchita'.
From childhood Conchita showed signs of poor health. When she was little more than one and a half years old, she fell seriously ill with acute enterocolitis, so much so that her life was feared for. The little girl miraculously recovered and her parents attributed the unexpected healing to the intercession of the Virgin of Lourdes. Considering her precarious state of health, her parents decided, at the doctors' suggestion, not to let her attend any school in the city, becoming her educators themselves. Her father was particularly responsible for her education, assisted by two teachers, and gave her an adequate catechetical preparation for the sacraments of Confirmation, which she received on 3 May 1912, and First Communion, which she received at midnight mass on 25 December 1912.
In addition to her studies and domestic work with her mother, she spent several hours praying in the oratory at home, praying the rosary and teaching catechism to the domestic helpers, as well as walking with her father and performing pious exercises with him.
From an early age, Conchita joined the Archconfraternity of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and felt the call to religious life, desiring to become a Carmelite. Unfortunately, illness prevented the realisation of her desire. At the age of ten, she had a profound religious crisis due to scruples, which was, however, successfully resolved within about two years with the wise intervention of her new confessor, the Redemptorist Fr. Ruiz Abad. In 1917, she was diagnosed with an intestinal inflammation that caused her severe pain and forced her to go on a strict diet.
Furthermore, in 1924, her mother was afflicted by a serious mental imbalance, so much so that she was hospitalised at the Sanatorium of La Purissima in Granada, with an absolute ban on visitors. The Venerable and her father heroically faced this new pain, sustained by constant prayer and trust in God.
Despite her poor health, Conchita made several trips and pilgrimages, of which she took notes and wrote chronicles. In August 1926, after a pilgrimage to Lisieux, at the tomb of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, she fell ill with tuberculosis, so the doctors advised her parents to move to the Carmine di San Valentino, near the Alhambra forests, in the hope of halting the worsening of the disease. Unfortunately, however, the move did not bring the hoped-for improvement and Conchita died on the morning of 13th May 1927, aged just 22 two years.
Buried in the family chapel in the cemetery of Granada, on 13 May 1978 her mortal remains were transferred to the oratory of the present-day Carmel de Conchita (Alhambra). Since 29 November 2007 they have rested in the Redemptorist church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Granada, next to the remains of her father, the Venerable Francisco Barrecheguren Montagut
Pope Francis has approved the promulgation of the decree on the miracle that took place through the intercession of the venerable Servant of God María de la Concepción (Conchita) Barrecheguren García (1905-1927), daughter of the Redemptorist Priest Francisco Barrecheguren.
Conchita's latent hunger for sanctity exploded soon after her death on 13 May 1927, spreading with unusual steepness and persisting to this day not only in Spain but also in several European cities and states in the American continent, Africa and Asia.
The Cause of Canonisation, sponsored by the Archdiocese of Granada and taken care of by the Redemptorist Missionaries of the Province of Madrid, began on 21st September 1938 and ended in its diocesan phase on 7th November 1945. At the request of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, a supplementary enquiry was held in 1979, which, together with the ordinary diocesan process, received the decree of juridical validity in 1992.
On 23 December 1994, with the consent of the Archbishop of Granada, the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer assumed exclusive patronage of the Cause, entrusting it to the care of the General Postulation. Having presented the Positio on her life and virtues in 2002, Pope Francis declared her Venerable, together with her father Francisco, on 5 May 2020.
In the meantime, in the Diocese of Orihuela-Alicante, from 18 May 2016 to 31 March 2017, the Diocesan Inquest was held on an alleged miracle that took place in 2014, through the Venerable's intercession, to a 16-month-old girl, healed from toxic shock syndrome with multi-organ damage caused by group A streptococcus.
Having issued the decree of legal validity of the procedural acts and drawn up the Positio on the miracle, the Medical Consultation (20 May 2021), the Congress of Theologians (21 October 2021) and the Ordinary of Cardinals and Bishops (26 April 2022), meeting at the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, unanimously expressed a favourable opinion on the miracle.
Thus the celebration of her beatification was held on 6 May 2023 in Granada, Spain.