Anna Maria Taigi

Anna Maria Giannetti was born in Siena on 29 May 1769, the only child of the pharmacist Luigi Giannetti and Maria Masi, and was baptized the next day as Anna Maria Gesualda Antonia. When her father lost his fortune the family moved to Rome in 1774; Luigi found work as a household servant. From 1774 to 1776 she attended a school of the Filippini Sisters. Afterward she worked as a domestic servant to help support the family. She received Confirmation in 1780 at the Lateran basilica and First Communion in 1782 at San Francesco di Paola.

On 7 January 1789 she married Domenico Taigi, a Milanese butler in the service of the Chigi family. They had seven children; three died in infancy. Domenico was devoted yet often ill-tempered and caustic; after her father's death her mother also came to live with them, adding further strain. In the winter of 1790, while visiting Saint Peter's Basilica in an extravagant dress, she bumped into a Servite priest, went to confession, and cried out that she was a great sinner. Absolved, she felt a decisive call to renounce vanity. Before a crucifix in Sant'Andrea della Valle she heard Christ ask whether she wished to follow Him in poverty and the cross or in earthly triumph; she answered that she embraced His cross in pain and ignominy, awaiting glory only hereafter.

On 26 December 1802 she professed as a Secular Trinitarian at San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane. With her husband's consent she continued to manage her household while frequenting hospitals, especially San Giacomo of the Incurables, welcoming the poor, and refusing all material gifts offered for her counsel. She endured her husband's severity and her mother-in-law's difficult character without complaint, raising her children and later sheltering her widowed daughter Sofia and Sofia's six children. Spiritual directors and friends included Saint Vincent Strambi, Raffaele Natali, Cardinal Carlo Maria Pedicini, and others; Popes Pius VII, Leo XII, and others held her in esteem. She composed a prayer to the Blessed Virgin that Pius VII enriched with indulgences.

From about 1790 until her death a luminous globe, like a miniature sun crowned with thorns, remained constantly before her eyes; in it she saw past and future events and the state of souls. She experienced ecstasies, foresaw the short pontificate of Pius VIII and the election of Gregory XVI, and offered counsel to cardinals, bishops, and even Napoleon's mother. On 20 May 1836 she made what she knew would be her last visit to San Paolo fuori le Mura. Falling ill on 24 October 1836, she never rose again. She received the last sacraments and died at four in the morning on 9 June 1837. Her body was exposed at Santa Maria in Via Lata, buried at Campo Verano by order of Gregory XVI, and later transferred (1865) to San Crisogono, where it was found intact in 1868 though no longer incorrupt by 1920. Declared Venerable in 1906, she was beatified by Benedict XV on 30 May 1920; her feast is kept on 9 June.

May Blessed Anna Maria Taigi obtain for us the grace to carry the hidden cross of family life with patience and to seek God alone amid ordinary duties.