Zavala and her spiritual director (and future Servant of God) Cipriano Iñiguez Martín del Campo both co-founded a new religious order on 13 October 1901 titled as the Handmaids of Santa Margherita Maria and the Poor.

[1] The Mexican Revolution started in 1911 and its effects lasted up until 1936 during which the political-religious situation in Mexico became tense in which the faith underwent severe persecution.

Zavala put her own life at risk and hid the priests and the Archbishop of Guadalajara in her hospital; it was the archdiocese who granted diocesan approval to the order on 24 May 1935.

did so as well on 21 March 2000 while the confirmation of her heroic virtue led Pope John Paul II to name her as Venerable on 1 July 2000.

[citation needed] The miracle for her beatification – a healing science could not explain – was investigated on a diocesan level and received C.C.S.

[citation needed] John Paul II approved this miracle on 20 December 2003 and beatified her in Saint Peter's Square on 25 April 2004.

Pope Benedict XVI approved this miracle on 20 December 2012 and formalized the date at a consistory of cardinals on 11 February 2013 (just prior to announcing his resignation).