Menina Izildinha

Menina Izildinha
Prayer card of Menina Izildinha
Mystic, Angel of the Lord, Angel of the Poor, Protector of Children
Born	Maria Izilda de Castro Ribeiro June 17, 1897 Póvoa de Lanhoso, Portugal
Died	May 24, 1911 (aged 13) Guimarães, Portugal
Venerated in	Folk Catholicism Roman Catholicism in Brazil
Major shrine	Sanctuary of Menina Izildinha, Monte Alto, São Paulo, Brazil
Feast	June 17
Attributes	Flowers
Patronage	Children, adolescents, orphans, good health, social welfare, protection from harm, protection from diseases, people in poverty

Menina Izildinha, Angel of the Lord or Saint Izildinha is the popular name of Maria Izilda de Castro Ribeiro (Póvoa de Lanhoso, 1897 – Guimarães, 1911), an unofficial popular saint to whom Brazilian Catholics have attributed inexplicable miracles, cures and healings.

Maria Izilda de Castro Ribeiro was born on June 17, 1897 in Póvoa de Lanhoso, Portugal to Aurélio Ribeiro and Ana Castro and one of the six children with five brothers: Constantine, José Bernardo, Antonio, Fernando and Julio de Castro Ribeiro. She was baptized a Catholic on September 2, 1897, with Father John Duarte Macedo as her godfather and the Virgin Mary as her godmother, and made her Holy Communion in May 1904. She was described by her cousins, uncle and other family relatives as "cheerful and friendly" and was noted to enjoy playing the piano, completing her primary school at 11 and taking a strong devotion in angels and the Virgin Mary.

Maria Izilda's health greatly weakened near 1911 and she was diagnosed with leukemia. Her troubled family placed her in a separate room and noted that Maria accepted her suffering, never complaining of the pain, and was more worried of what would become of her family through their expenses. Before she died on May 24, 1911, in Guimarães, Portugal, barely 14 years old, she reportedly told her grandfather "Jesus is coming to take me".

Many years later, Maria's brother Fernando and his wife Rosa began to see visions of her through dreams following her death, resulting in many inexplicable miracles. On 1950, Fernando was reported that Maria Izilda appeared to him one night and told him to take her body to Brazil (where her brother Constantino lived and maintained a successful industrial center and food factory), so her relatives in Brazil agreed to relocate her body there from Portugal; a wish that the family wanted for a long time, though many of the villagers disagreed with this. On August 1, 1950, her body was removed from her grave and exhumed, but it was amazingly still found in perfect condition, 39 years after her death, as well as her clothes and even blooming flowers that adorned the coffin. The intact body stunned the local villagers, believing it to be a miracle of sorts and Izilda to be a popular saint, referring to her as Menina Izildinha, the "Angel of the Lord".