Sisters would expand into medical care as a new apostolate. This pattern was repeated as other communities of Sisters were established in the region. Founder In 1917 the Catholic Church established a new Code of Canon Law, which was the first organized juridical codification of the regulations for many aspects of the church's life and functioning. One of the effects was reinforcing the separation of cloistered communities. These new regulations would have severely hampered the work the nuns were undertaking. At the recommendation of the Master of the Order of Preachers, Ludwig Theissling, who was visiting Peru, the Sisters, under the auspices of Bishop Zubieta, decided to separate from the monastic community from which they had come and to form a new and independent congregation of Religious Sisters of the Dominican Third Order Regular. The new congregation was formally established on 5 October 1918 at the Convent of Our Lady of the Patronage in Lima. Nicol was elected as the first Prioress General of the congregation, and served in that office the rest of her life. She also served as the Mistress of novices, training the candidates to the congregation at their novitiate in Spain. During her generalship, she led her Sisters to establish themselves in other countries. In 1932 she led the founding community to mainland China, establishing what is to be the nucleus of their presence in Asia. She also established her congregation in Spain where they were able to recruit and form many missionary vocations. The General Motherhouse of the congregation was established in Pamplona, Navarre, Spain, and became her base. By 1938 Nicol increasingly frail and wanted to retire to prepare herself for her final days. Nevertheless, she accepted her unanimous re-election for a third term as Prioress General at the congregation's General Chapter of 1939. She died on 24 February 1940. Legacy Today the congregation has 785 Sisters serving in 21 nations on five continents. Its General Motherhouse is now in Madrid, Spain. Among its members, the congregation counts four Sisters who are considered to be martyrs for the faith, having been tortured and murdered in the former Republic of the Congo on 25 November 1964, in the course of the Simba Rebellion, after they refused to leave the patients in their hospital. Veneration The formal process for the canonization of Nicol was opened in Pamplona in September 1962. Pope John Paul II declared her