8-year-old girl dies of cancer and becomes protector of "children on a mission"

The young Spaniard Teresita Castillo de Diego, 8, died last March after fighting a head tumor.

However, in her final days, she realized a dream: to become a missionary.

The opportunity arose on 11 February, during a visit by father Ángel Camino Lamela, episcopal vicar of the archdiocese of Madrid, at the hospital of La Paz.

The priest described the meeting he had with the child in a letter addressed to the faithful of the Vicariate.

Father Ángel had gone to celebrate Mass in the hospital and they asked him to meet a little girl who would be operated on the next day to remove a tumor from her head.

“I arrived in the ICU properly equipped, greeted the doctors and nurses, and then they took me to Teresita's bed, which was next to Mother Teresa. A white bandage covered his entire head but his face was sufficiently uncovered so as to perceive a truly brilliant and exceptional face ”, wrote the priest.

When he entered the room, he said he was there "in the name of the Cardinal Archbishop of Madrid to bring him Jesus".

The little girl then replied: "Bring me Jesus, right? You know what? I love Jesus very much". The mother encouraged Teresita to tell the priest what she would like to be. "I want to be a missionary“, Said the little girl.

"Taking strength from where I did not have it, for the emotion that the response produced in me, I said to her: 'Teresita, I will make you a missionary of the church right now, and in the afternoon I will bring you the accreditation document and the missionary cross '”, The Spanish priest promised.

Then, the priest administered the Sacrament of Anointing and gave her Communion and the blessing.

“It was a moment of prayer, extremely simple but deeply supernatural. We were joined by some nurses who spontaneously took pictures of us, totally unexpected for me, and which will remain as an unforgettable memory. We said goodbye while she and her mother remained there, praying and thanking ”.

The priest kept his promise and at 17 pm on the same day he brought the missionary service "printed on a beautiful green parchment" and the missionary cross to the hospital.

The little girl took the document and asked her mother to hang the cross next to the bed: “Put this cross on the headboard so I can see it clearly and tomorrow I will take it to the operating room. I am already a missionary, ”she said.

Teresita was an adopted daughter and was born in Russia. She arrived in Spain when she was three and has always shown a strong spirituality. Cardinal Carlos Osoro, archbishop of Madrid, was present at his funeral.