Santa María de la Purísima de la Cruz Salvat Romero was a religious and superior general of the Company of the Cross. This fact sheet distinguishes what documents the sources of the Holy See and of the congregation itself from the later devotional memory, and places its Sevillian mother house without turning a mapping coordinate into a more precise statement than the source allows.
Where is he?
The marker points to the Convent of Santa Angela de la Cruzin Seville, where the congregation retains the memory of its founders and its superiors. OpenStreetMap identifies a place of worship there; therefore the coordinate is used as a reference of the cartographed building. The fact sheet does not state that each space of the house corresponds to the exact tomb or that the point summarizes all the places in which the saint lived.
Documented history
María Isabel Salvat Romero was born in Madrid on 20 February 1926. During the Civil War his family moved to Portugal and then returned to Madrid. In 1944 he entered the Institute of the Sisters of the Company of the Cross in Seville; upon receiving the habit he took the name of sister Maria de la Pursima de la Cruz. In 1947 he professed the temporary votes.
The Holy See notes that it received responsibilities for education, training and government from the Institute. In 1977 he was elected Superior General and was re-elected three times, in the years after the Second Vatican Council. His task was marked by the permanent formation of the sisters, especially in times of crisis and confusion, and by a religious life described as serene, cheerful and oriented to seek the will of God.
In 1994 he was diagnosed with a tumor and was operated. He died on 31 October 1998 in the mother house of Seville. It was beatified in Seville on 18 September 2010 and canonized on 18 October 2015. Its ecclesial state is therefore that of canonized saint of the Catholic Church.
Service to the poor
The 2015 canonization homily sums up its service as a humble dedication to the latter, with particular attention to the children of the poor and the sick. This description makes it possible to understand their legacy without reducing it to an anecdote: the formation of religious women, community life and care for people in need were part of a work sustained in time.
The Sevillian mother house is also a place of memory. The tradition of the Society of the Cross retains the spiritual presence of its founders and of the sisters who continued their service. When a devotional tradition attributes favors to its intercession, it is presented as a prayer request and not as automatic proof of an extraordinary fact.
Mary and the Company of the Cross
The religious name of Mary of Pursima expresses a concrete Marian relationship within the life of the congregation. Mary is venerated as the Mother of the Lord and her intercession is asked; worship corresponds only to God. The sources consulted document the religious life and service of the saint, but this fact sheet is not used to invent private apparitions, locutions or miracles.
Prayer before his memory can ask for fidelity, humility and charity for those who serve the poor and the sick. Canonization recognizes its holiness according to the Church's process; it does not make every memory transmitted by local devotion a historical chronicle.
Prayer
Santa María de la Purísima de la Cruz, pray for the religious, for the poor and for the sick. He asks the Virgin Mary to teach us to serve with humility, joy and perseverance. Amen.