Maria Crocifissa di Rosa

Maria Crocifissa Di Rosa, born Paola Francesca Di Rosa on November 6, 1813, was an Italian Roman Catholic nun and the founder of the Ancelle della carità (Servants of Charity). She is venerated as a saint for her profound dedication to the spiritual and material well-being of the poor and the sick.

Life and Work

Born into a wealthy industrialist family in Brescia, Di Rosa received her education from the Visitation Sisters. After her mother's death in 1824, she left school and began working in her father's spinning mill. There, she took notice of the working conditions and, with her father's encouragement, began tending to the needs of the female workers. She developed a deep concern for their welfare, both material and spiritual.

Despite her father's attempts to arrange marriages for her, Di Rosa felt a different calling. Following a cholera epidemic in Brescia in 1836, during which she ministered to the sick in local hospitals, her charitable work intensified. Around 1840, she began gathering women to dedicate their efforts to caring for the poor and the sick. This initiative evolved into her religious congregation, the Ancelle della carità, which received diocesan approval in 1843 and papal approval in 1850.

Di Rosa took her religious name, Maria Crocifissa, and made her profession in 1852. Her order's apostolate centered on caring for those most in need, famously stating, "I suffer from seeing suffering."

Sainthood

The process for Di Rosa's canonization began in 1913. She was declared Venerable by Pope Pius XI in 1932. Pope Pius XII presided over her beatification on May 26, 1940, and subsequently canonized her as a saint in Saint Peter's Basilica on June 12, 1954.

Death

Maria Crocifissa Di Rosa died on December 15, 1855, in a hospital in Brescia, following a prolonged illness. Her legacy endures through the continued work of the Ancelle della carità, serving the marginalized and afflicted.