Zofia Czeska-Maciejowska was a Polish professed religious and the founder of the Sisters of the Presentation. Czeska was married before a brief period of time before following her call into the religious life.
Zygmunt Gorazdowski was a Polish Roman Catholic priest and the founder of the Sisters of Saint Joseph. Gorazdowski suffered from tuberculosis during his childhood which impeded his studies for the priesthood in what required him to take time off in order to recover before he could be ordained. Once he was ordained he served in various parishes while setting up homes for orphans and single mothers as well as hospices and other establishments for a range of people; he was a prolific writer of catechism and other religious notes for the benefit of his flock.
Celine Chludzińska Borzęcka was a Roman Catholic professed religious and the co-foundress - along with her daughter Jadwiga Borzęcka - of the Sisters of the Resurrection. Borzęcka desired the religious life but married in obedience to her parents and bore four children; two died as infants. After her husband's death, she chose to follow the spiritual path with her daughter at her side and began a life in community in Rome.
María Bernarda Bütler - born Verena Bütler - was a Swiss Roman Catholic professed religious and the foundress of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Sinners, and served in the missions in Ecuador and Colombia. Bütler worked for the care of the poor in these places until her exile from Ecuador and entrance into Colombia where she worked for the remainder of her life. Her order moved there with her, and continued to expand during her time there until her death.
Cándida María de Jesús – born Juana Josefa Cipitria y Barriola – was a Spanish nun and the founder of the Daughters of Jesus. The order - founded in 1871 - was under Jesuit direction from her spiritual director and was involved with the education of children in Salamanca though expanded during her lifetime.
Rita Lopes de Almeida – in religion Rita Beloved of Jesus – was a Portuguese religious sister and the foundress of the Jesus Mary Joseph Institute. She spread the faith in the spirit of evangelization across Portugal despite a period of anti-religious sentiment and even received some intimidating threats during the course of her apostolate due to this; her order was dedicated to tending to girls and it ferried them off to their parents when anti-religious sentiment intensified.
Blessed María Pilar López de Maturana Ortiz de Zárate - in religious Margarita María - was a Spanish Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Mercedarian Missionaries of Bérriz. The religious made several international trips in order to serve in the missions as her order often dabbled in and undertook these trips despite a serious ulcer that transcended into stomach cancer but nevertheless she continued to promote the charism of the missions.
María del Carmen Sallés y Barangueras – in religious Carmen of Jesus – was a Spanish Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception. Sallés is best known for being a strong advocate of both genders being equal and a staunch defender of the rights of women, since she made this the focus of her life from the beginning of her entrance into the religious life.
María Guadalupe García Zavala – born Anastasia Guadalupe García Zavala – was a Mexican Roman Catholic religious sister and the co-founder of the Handmaids of Santa Margherita and the Poor. She is also known as "Mother Lupita". At one time, she was engaged to be married but she decided her religious call was too strong for that and she broke off her engagement in order to pursue this call. She dedicated herself to the care of ill people and was noted for her compassion and faith.
Rosa Elena Cornejo Pazmiño was an Ecuadorian Roman Catholic nun who took the name of María Francisca of the Wounds after she became a nun. She established the Franciscan Missionaries of the Immaculata.
Antonia Maria Verna was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Suore di carità dell'Immacolata Concezione. Verna left her hometown when she was fifteen due to increasing offers of marriage and returned sometime later when she decided to pursue her religious vocation. Her emphasis was on catechism and founded her religious congregation to better teach catechism to children as well as to tend to ill people.
Maria Crocifissa Curcio, born Rosa Curcio, was an Italian Roman Catholic Carmelite nun. She went on to establish her own Carmelite congregation known as the Carmelite Missionary Sisters of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus. Curcio took the name of "Maria Crocifissa" upon her solemn profession in 1930.
Carolina Santocanale was an Italian Roman Catholic nun who assumed the name of "Maria of Jesus" and established the Capuchin Sisters of the Immaculata of Lourdes. Santocanale became well known for her treatment of the ill and the poor to whom she devoted her life and work to and was also a member of the Secular Franciscan Order.
Leopoldina Naudet was an Italian Roman Catholic of both French and Austrian origins. She was a professed religious of the now-extinct Congregation of Dilette of Jesus and served as the foundress of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Verona. Naudet served in the court of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor and after his death served his daughter Maria Anna who became an abbess and professed religious alongside Naudet and her sister.
Giuditta Vannini – also known as Giuseppina – was an Italian Roman Catholic nun who became a Camillian. Together with Luigi Tezza she established the religious congregation known as the Daughters of Saint Camillus. She and her two siblings were orphaned as children and were placed in different homes; she was raised and educated in Rome under nuns where her vocation to the religious life was strengthened. Vannini later tried joining a religious order but was forced to leave during her novitiate period after suffering from ill health. She and Tezza met in 1891 and founded a religious congregation of which Vannini served as Superior General until her death while Tezza was exiled to Peru around 1900.
Gertrude Prosperi was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious of the Order of Saint Benedict. Prosperi - upon her profession into the Benedictines - assumed the religious name of "Maria Luisa Angelica" and served as the abbess of her convent for an extended period of time until her death.
Margaretha Flesch was a German Roman Catholic professed religious who established the Franciscan Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Angels. Flesch assumed the new religious name of "Maria Rosa" after she made her profession into her own order and was its first Mother Superior.
Manuela de Jesús Arias Espinosa, also known by her religious name María Inés Teresa of the Blessed Sacrament, was a Mexican Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of both the Poor Clare Missionary Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament (1945) and the Missionaries of Christ for the Universal Church (1979). She lived during the time of the Cristero War and remained out of the nation during some of it in order to avoid the anti-religious persecution of the times.
Mariano da Roccacasale - born Domenico di Nicolantonio - was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious from the Order of Friars Minor. He was of peasant stock and entered the order in his twenties as a professed religious rather than as an ordained priest. He was an influence in the decision of Giuseppe Oddi joining the Franciscans after their 1863 encounter.
Carmen Elena Rendiles Martínez - in religion María Carmen - was a Venezuelan Roman Catholic professed religious from the Servants of the Eucharist and the founder of the Servants of Jesus of Caracas. Rendiles served in a leadership position for her order in France where she spent her time of religious formation and returned to Venezuela to found her order in 1965 and assume control as Superior-General of her new order.
