From successful entrepreneur in Silicon Valley to cloistered nun

This engineer from Valencia, Spain, received a scholarship to study her PhD in computational mathematics at Stanford University. She left these studies in 2011 to found Jetlore, a company based in San Mateo, California, that provided data to large companies to offer "tailored" content to their customers. PayPal soon became interested in this tool and bought the company from her.

Montse, as she is known, was selected among the 10 top talents in Spain under 35 by MIT Technology Review magazine and received a bronze medal at the 2017 Stevie Awards for Women in Business, for Female Executive of the Year.

Today Montserrat Medina's LinkedIn page reads “Sierva de Dios” ("Servant of God"). Below it there’s this text:

Why this change? Montse decided to become a nun. Success and money were not making her happy, and she was looking for more. Now she says that she has found "the treasure" of which the Gospel speaks, and she is giving herself to God as a nun at the Monastery of Augustinian contemplative nuns of Santa Ana, located in the town of Sant Mateu in Castellón, near the eastern coast of Spain.

Montse first had to pass through "a period of intense formation" and needed to "give special care to this space of prayer and solitude" until she "professed her first vows," according to one of her companions in the community, Sister Maria Teresa.

Another of the nuns of the convent, Sister Asunción, reveals that their new member analyzed different congregations on the Internet before choosing Santa Ana Monastery.

Before "disappearing" at the end of the year 2020, Montse sent a letter to her partners at Deloitte explaining her decision.

In the letter, she says:

I used all the talents that the infinite goodness of our God had granted me, but I used them for my own glory and to accumulate richness in this world. I exploited the talents I received and sought only my own worldly interest, while at the same time deceiving myself. Far from making me happy however, that attitude only exacerbated my ever-growing emptiness in my soul.

She also explains:

I have resolved, without any regrets, to stop investing in my worldly future and start investing in my future for eternal life. Since I am leaving to serve and do God's Will, I have no doubt that our merciful Lord will cover for my absence to those whom I am suddenly abandoning for Him. To clarify, I am not leaving the world itself, but everything mundane. And I want to give my life in prayer and offering for all those whom God loves.

This is how Montse is facing her new life of complete surrender to God:

I do not know why his Love has freely granted me undeserved talents which enabled me to work and fulfill myself as a person all these years. Likewise, I do not know what plans He has for me moving forward. The only thing I know for sure is that I have found "the treasure." And, as the Gospel says, I want to sell everything I have in this world to buy it out (Mt 13: 44-46). I feel that, by answering this call, my life is imbued with a new meaning, that makes me feel blessed and happy.

You can read the full text of Montse’s letter on her LinkedIn page.