María Soledad Torres y Acosta (2 December 1826 – 11 October 1887) - born Manuela - was a Spanish Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Servants of Mary. Her apostolic actions - and those of her order - were dedicated towards the nursing of the sick and the poor in the places that it operated in. Torres' childhood consisted of the desire to join the religious life and managed to join a priest's fledgling religious cluster of women after the Dominicans refused to admit her due to her frail constitution. But a series of struggles saw her in a conflicted position of leadership that saw her removed and reinstated twice.
Torres was beatified in 1950 and was later proclaimed a saint in 1970. Her liturgical feast is affixed to the date of her death as is the norm. In 2016, a movie was produced in Spain (original title: Luz de Soledad) that tells her vocation and the struggles during the early years of her life as founder.
Life
Manuela Torres Acosta was born on 2 December 1826 as the second of five children to Francisco Torres and Antonia Acosta in Madrid; she was baptized as "Antonia Bibiana Manuela". Her parents ran a small business in their home near the Plaza de España.
Martínez in 1856 took with him six of the twelve religious to the missions at Fernando Pó which left Torres as the superior of the order and the sole remaining member of the original group. The remaining religious soon removed her from this office which left the group disorganized and such was the chaos that the local bishop even threatened to dissolve it.
Torres faced several trials throughout her time of leadership in the congregation and soon became the victim of slander and was again removed from her office until Father Sánchez had her reinstated following after another investigation. One miracle was the cure of Sister Lucia Santiago Allende on November 10, 1915, from grave tuberculosis and severe gastric complications.
Two more miracles were investigated in two separate cognitional processes and the Congregation for the Causes of Saints later approved this on 29 October 1968 after their meeting while passing it onto Pope Paul VI on 10 November 1969 who confirmed them. Paul VI canonized Torres as a saint on 25 January 1970.