Handmaids of Saint Margaret Mary and the Poor

María Guadalupe García Zavala and her spiritual director, the priest Cipriano Iñiguez Martín del Campo, began the congregation at Guadalajara, Jalisco, in October 1901 in connection with hospital service. The community assumed a stable common religious life and later developed beyond its first hospital. Its official Spanish name is Siervas de Santa Margarita María y de los Pobres; the English title Handmaids or Servants of Saint Margaret Mary and the Poor and the initials S.S.M.M.P. all identify the same institute.^[2]

The sisters follow Catholic discipline for religious institutes and their own constitutions under legitimate superiors. Saint María Guadalupe, often called Mother Lupita, served as superior general and helped guide the institute through severe financial need and anti-clerical persecution. Her canonization recognizes her personal sanctity; it does not make every administrative decision immutable or replace the authority of the institute's current proper law.^[3]

The congregation's charism centers on merciful service to Christ in people who are ill, poor, elderly, or otherwise vulnerable. Its works have included hospitals, nursing, homes for older people, parish health initiatives, and other forms of direct care in Mexico and additional countries. During conflict in Mexico the early sisters treated wounded people from opposing sides and protected clergy while attempting to keep their hospital available. Professional standards, safeguarding, civil health law, Catholic medical ethics, and respect for each patient's freedom govern such ministries today.