Sister Mary Jane Wilson, also known as Maria of Saint Francis, was an English woman who was born in India on 3rd of October 1840, and who died in Madeira, aged 76, on the 18th October 1916. She was declared Venerable on 9th October 2013 by Pope Francis. When she was 40 years old, she moved to Madeira to nurse an English woman. She settled in Funchal and lived the rest of her life in Madeira. In 1884 she co-founded, together with Amélia Amaro de Sá, the religious order of the Franciscan Sisters of Our Lady of Victory (Irmãs Franciscanas de Nossa Senhora das Vitórias). In 1907 she nursed patients throughout a smallpox epidemic on the island, and was awarded the honour of “Tower and Sword” (Torre e Espada). She dedicated her life to caring for children, founding an orphanage (Orfandade de Santa Isabel), and caring for the sick. The revolution of October 1910 forced her to leave Madeira, but she returned a year later. There is a small museum in Funchal dedicated to her life and work; two sculptures of her: one by Largo Severiano Ferraz (by the roundabout in front of the Red Cross), and another in the municipal gardens in Santa Cruz; and a book on her life («The invincible Victorian, the life of Mary Jane Wilson» by Terry Dunphy) published by the Franciscan Sisters of Our Lady of Victories.
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