María Emilia Riquelme

María Emilia Riquelme y Zayas was a Spanish Roman Catholic religious sister and the founder of the Misioneras del Santísimo Sacramento y María Inmaculada. In her childhood she moved from place to place, since her father was an officer and was moved to different barracks across the nation. All the while she studied in boarding schools to perfect her knowledge in French and art. After her schooling she felt drawn to the religious life and set herself on entering a convent after her father died. But ill health forced her to give up this idea and she instead founded a congregation of her own alongside several like-minded women who made the poor the focus of their apostolate. This congregation would spread within Spain and later across to other countries such as Portugal and Bolivia.