Editor’s Note: All conversations were conducted in Spanish and translated into English by the author for this article.

In a South St. Paul strip mall, tucked between a grocery store and a tobacco store, is a surprising treasure: a new Spanish language Catholic gift store that aims to be a spiritual hub for many immigrants.

Beatriz Perez Santana — originally from Guerrero, Mexico, but who has lived in Minnesota for 20 years — opened La Divina Providencia Tienda Católica (Divine Providence Catholic Store) to the public in March. The shelves of the store are lined with art featuring Our Lady of Guadalupe, Spanish Bibles, rosaries, religious jewelry and ponchos sporting a large image of the Virgin Mary. Most of the inventory is imported directly from Mexico.

But in addition to moving inventory, Perez Santana wants the store to move souls.

“The goal is to evangelize through this little Catholic store,” Perez Santana said. “For me it is a great mission and blessing.”

Perez Santana feels a particular mission to reach new immigrants, who often stop practicing their Catholic faith when they come to the United States, she said.

“We come to this country, and we forget, we focus more on work, and we forget about our faith,” Perez Santana said. When people come to the store, Perez Santana said that she talks with them about the faith, shares her testimony and invites them to Mass.

“Our Hispanic community, who before did not attend Church, is arriving to Mass through this little store,” she said. “For that I am very happy.”

Perez Santana knows from her own experience that it can be difficult as an immigrant to find a new church community — she also did not practice her faith when she came to the U.S. until she experienced a conversion of heart.

“When I arrived to this country, I also fell away (from the faith). As time passed, and I began to feel an emptiness in my heart that work and friendships did not fill,” she said. “I felt alone, I felt empty.”

When she found herself in a “profound depression” she began to return to church.

“I found myself in the Lord, and from that moment my life changed,” she said. Now her husband and three children serve in the choir at St. Francis de Sales in St. Paul.

On a typical Tuesday morning in the store, 12 to 15 women gather around a table in the back for one of the two weekly small groups that Perez Santana hosts for women. They make tea and laugh while chatting in Spanish.

Christina Jacinto, 37, attends one of the weekly small groups hosted at the store. Despite growing up Catholic in Mexico, she did not practice her faith after she immigrated to the U.S. until she met Perez Santana at an exercise class. Through her encouragement and from the support she has found in the small group, she now attends Mass at St. Francis de Sales.

“It has done me so much good to be in this group,” she said. “Beatriz has been a good friend, a good listener. There have been many difficult moments in my marriage, and she has always been there to offer me a word of encouragement and to speak to me about the word of God.”

She said that the store has borne fruit in her family’s life.

“It has been a huge change for me, as much as for my family, this place, where I felt comfortable and like I could talk and express myself,” she said.

Jacinto said Perez Santana inspires her, proving that female Hispanic immigrants can start a business despite obstacles they may face.

“Being women, people say we won’t make it, that we can’t, but she has demonstrated that yes, we can,” Jacinto said. “We feel very proud of her.”

Vicenta Rodregez also attends one of the small groups held at the store. She met Perez Santana 10 years ago at a now-defunct South St. Paul laundromat, where they connected over their faith in Christ.

Although Rodregez is Protestant, Perez Santana invited her to join the group of women. Rodregez said that it has given her a community and helped her grow in her faith.

“We come, we share, we pray, are we are strengthened in the faith,” she said. “The Lord has done such a great work in Beatriz, and every day I have seen that the Holy Spirit has given her direction … she is a vessel that God uses.”