Blessed Josefa Naval Girbés

Blessed Josefa Naval Girbés was a laywoman from Algemesí, near Valencia. She gave herself to God without leaving her family home, and for several decades she taught the girls of her parish embroidery, prayer, and the catechism. The Church commemorates her on February 24.

She was born on December 11, 1820, in Algemesí. Her parents were Francisco Naval and Josefa María Girbés, and she was their eldest child. She was baptized the same day and given the names María Josefa. She received little schooling, but she learned embroidery early. In 1833 her mother died, and the growing girl took over the care of the house, her father, and her younger siblings.

On December 4, 1838, a few days before her eighteenth birthday, she made a vow of perpetual chastity with the consent of her spiritual director. Her guide was the pastor of the parish. She did not enter a convent. She stayed at home, attended Mass every day, and looked after the liturgical vestments and the altars of the parish church. She belonged to the Third Order of the Discalced Carmelites, known today as the Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites, and her spiritual life was shaped by the teaching of Saint Teresa of Jesus and Saint John of the Cross.

Around 1850, at the age of thirty, on the advice of her pastor she opened her home to her friends and to the girls of the town. She taught them embroidery free of charge, a craft in which she was highly skilled, and as they worked she explained the Gospel and the catechism and taught them to pray. Girls from families of every social class came to the workshop. To the best-prepared pupils she gave a deeper spiritual formation at gatherings known as the “garden talks.” Many of her pupils later started families, and many entered convents.

Her care did not end at the workshop. She also gathered mothers in her home, belonged to the Conference of Saint Vincent de Paul, visited the sick, helped the poor, and reconciled quarreling spouses. She kept watch with the dying and helped them prepare for death. During the cholera epidemic of 1885 she cared for the infected with heroic dedication.

Her health had long been frail, and in the last two years of her life she was gravely ill. She died in Algemesí on February 24, 1893, surrounded by her pupils, at the age of 72. The next day she was buried in the Carmelite habit, with many townspeople taking part. In 1946 her remains were moved to the parish church of Saint James in Algemesí.

The informative process in the Archdiocese of Valencia was held from 1950 to 1952. In 1987 John Paul II recognized her heroic virtues, and on September 25, 1988, he proclaimed her blessed in Saint Peter’s Square in Rome. In his homily he pointed out that she remained a layperson: she who filled cloistered convents with her pupils lived the evangelical counsels herself in the world.