María Felicidad Masiá Ferragut was born on 29 August 1890 in Algemesí, in the region of Valencia, Spain. From her earliest years she was drawn to the religious life. She entered the convent and embraced the consecrated state with generosity, finding in the cloister the place where she could give herself entirely to God.
Her sisters likewise answered the same call and became religious. The family of María Felicidad was thus marked by a shared offering: mother and daughters united not only by blood but by a common consecration. This bond of faith would later be tested in the supreme trial of persecution.
When the Spanish Civil War unleashed fierce anti-Catholic violence, religious houses were attacked and the faithful hunted for their loyalty to the Church. María Felicidad was arrested together with her mother, María Teresa Ferragut Roig, and her sisters. The family that had been one in vocation now became one in suffering. They refused to renounce Christ or the Church and were put to death for their fidelity on 25 October 1936.
The Church recognized their martyrdom. On 11 March 2001 Pope John Paul II beatified María Felicidad Masiá Ferragut among José Aparicio Sanz and 232 companions, raising them as blessed models of courage under persecution and of perseverance unto death.
May Blessed María Felicidad Masiá Ferragut obtain for the faithful the grace of steadfast fidelity, and may her example of a family wholly given to God inspire many to offer everything for Christ.
