Bl. Rosa Flesch

Margaretha Flesch was born in 1826 at Schönstatt near Koblenz, Germany. Her mother died when she was six, and she grew up in extreme poverty, suffering under her stepmother.

She devoted herself to caring for the sick, the elderly and orphans. With some companions she founded the Franciscan Sisters of Our Lady of the Angels, known as the Waldbreitbach Franciscans, and took the name Mother Maria Rosa.

After her time as superior general she was unjustly sent away to one of the order's branch houses, and she bore it patiently. She died in 1906, aged eighty, and was beatified in Trier in 2008.

The Church has declared Rosa Flesch Blessed.

Beatification allows public veneration, usually in a particular region or religious family. Canonization extends it to the whole Church.