Maria Amparo, Countess of Vista Alegre

Doña Maria Amparo, Countess of Vista Alegre, (November 17, 1834 -August 19, 1864) was born in Madrid, Spain, the daughter of Queen regent Maria Christina I of Spain and her secret husband Augustín Fernández Muñoz, Duke of Riansares. Her full title was "Maria Amparo de los Desamparados Muñoz y de Borbón, condesa de Vista Alegre".

Maria Amparo's mother Maria Christina had been married to King Ferdinand VII of Spain, with whom she had had two daughters as Queen consort. The eldest was Isabella, who was proclaimed Queen Isabella II of Spain at the age of 3 upon the death of her father on September 29, 1833. His widow Maria Christina (now Queen Regent) married a sergeant from the guard a few months later, on December 28, 1833, and Maria Amparo was their first child. Her half-sister Isabella was declared Queen regnant in 1843, at the age of 13.

On March 1, 1855, Maria Amparo married Prince Władysław Czartoryski of Poland. They lived at the Hôtel Lambert, the base of operations in the Second French Empire for the exiled Czartoryski magnate family. She and Prince Władysław had a son, August Franciszek Czartoryski, on August 2, 1858.

Maria Amparo contracted tuberculosis, which was unfortunately passed to her son when he was 6. She died shortly thereafter, on August 19, 1864 at the age of 29 in Paris.

Her son August (whom they called "Gucio"), as a teenager, was later tutored by Joseph Kalinowski (canonized as Saint Raphael Kalinowski in 1991).

Though Prince Władysław's desire was that their son pursue a diplomatic career, Gucio defied his family's wishes and joined the Order of the Salesians in 1887. In 1892, he was ordained as a priest, although his family discouraged it, and did not attend the ceremony. He died in 1893 of tuberculosis, but his beatification process began in 1921, and in 2004, Maria Amparo's son was beatified -- the next step towards being declared a Saint.

References

* [http://www.thepeerage.com/p10352.htm#i103513 Genealogy at thepeerage.com]
* [http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20040425_czartoryski_en.html August's Vatican biography (as Augusto Czartoryski)] (versions also available in [http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20040425_czartoryski_fr.html French] , [http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20040425_czartoryski_it.html Italian] , [http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20040425_czartoryski_pl.html Polish] , and [http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20040425_czartoryski_sp.html Spanish] ).