Carmen Hernandez

María del Carmen Hernández Barrera (Ólvega, 24 November 1930 – Madrid, 19 July 2016) was a Spanish Roman Catholic catechist and the co-founder of the Neocatechumenal Way, with Kiko Argüello.

Carmen Hernández was born in Ólvega, Soria, in the province of Castile and Leon, but she moved with her family at a very young age to Tudela, in Navarre, where she spent most of her childhood and youth. She obtained a degree in chemistry in Madrid. After her graduation, she decided to become a missionary of the Catholic Church and she spent some time at the Instituto de Misioneras de Cristo Jesus. She then obtained a degree in theology at the Missionaries of Christ Jesus. In the 1960s, inspired by the Second Vatican Council, she lived for two years in Israel to deepen her understanding of the Bible and the importance of catechesis. Afterwards, she returned to Spain, where she devoted herself to the poor and marginalized, living in Palomeras Altas, a suburbia of Madrid. She met there Kiko Argüello, and together with the charisma of Charles de Foucauld, they formed the Neocatechumenal Way in 1964.

She died on 19 July 2016 in Madrid at age 85.

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