Maria Bolognesi

Maria Bolognesi was born on 21 October 1924 at Bosaro, in the province of Rovigo, the illegitimate daughter of Amedeo Gozzati and Giuseppa Samiolo. She first bore her mother's name; the surname Bolognesi came later from her stepfather Giuseppe, whom her mother married. Extreme poverty shaped her earliest years. She went at once to work in the fields and would remain an agricultural laborer for twenty-six years. She attended only the first two years of elementary school and could not pass into the third—not for lack of intelligence, but because of the need to work and because of undernourishment. Her maternal grandmother, Cesira Cornetto, planted in her a simple and true faith, love for Jesus, for neighbor, and for creation.

Family life was harsh. The stepfather mistreated his wife out of jealous fear; the mother, nervous and given to blasphemy, in turn struck the children. Maria was sent away for a time to the rectory of Don Sante Magro to do domestic work. Thus began a weary pilgrimage of constant changes of residence, always accompanied by heavy labor. From childhood she consecrated herself totally to the Lord and to the Madonna. In the house she became the support of both the old and the young; in the countryside she hoed, harvested wheat and beets, gathered wood, worked hemp, and sometimes fished. She learned to sew clothes, slippers, and little shoes, and for herself she made a special garment that was not worldly. She did not disdain even small masonry tasks.

In early 1932 she suffered a high fever while her mother lay dying of meningitis. Preparing for First Communion, Maria was told by the instructing sister that Jesus would grant a wish; she asked for her mother's recovery. The mother was restored, and Maria made her First Communion with deep emotion on 22 May 1932. In the summer of 1940–1941 she endured what were regarded as diabolical assaults: she could not enter a church, and priestly blessings seemed without effect. Taken for evaluation to a mental hospital, she was found free of psychological disorder; the Bishop of Rovigo, Guido Maria Mazzocco, blessed her beforehand from the window of his residence.

On the evening of Holy Thursday, 1 April 1942, she received her first vision of Jesus Christ. The Lord assured her that she would learn to read and bestowed a ruby ring as a sign of the stigmata. From that time her mystical life unfolded under the guidance of spiritual directors, beginning with Father Bassiano Paiato, who counseled her to keep a spiritual diary. In April 1942, with his permission, she began to wear a black habit and was ridiculed for her piety. By January 1944 she was living in the house of a Mrs. Piva. In another vision Christ granted her the gift of sweating blood, which occurred every Friday at three o'clock. She was invited to share in his Passion; until death she suffered unexplained blood losses which she offered for the poorest souls, and she continued to face demonic attacks. From 1943, for some hours each day, she gathered the children of poor families so that their parents could go to work. Her many mystical charisms never hindered her from spending herself in charity, above all toward children, for whom she became factotum, cobbler, seamstress, carpenter, and even beggar. She made frequent visits to the sick and kept night watches in hospitals; she collected money and basic necessities for destitute families. In later years she collaborated with the work of Don Olinto Marella for orphans and children of misery, and she welcomed all who sought counsel and intercession.

Trials multiplied. In March 1948 three criminals attacked her, left her unconscious and injured in the snow; skepticism led to a false accusation that she had invented the assault, of which she was later cleared. Through the 1940s she suffered arthritis, colitis, and appendicitis, and nearly lost her sight around 1950. She moved to Rovigo, sought treatment in Padua, and received successive spiritual directors: Rodolfo Barbieri from 1951, Mgr. Adelino Marenga from 1956, and after Marenga's death in 1964, Aldo Balduin. In July 1951 she suffered the pain of the Lord's flagellation. In 1954–1955 she stayed with Augustinian nuns in Ferrara, was hospitalized, and on a journey that included San Giovanni Rotondo and a retreat at Sperlinga she experienced fever, shoes full of blood, and a vision of Christ on Good Friday, 8 April 1955. Bedridden from spring 1958 into 1959, she later suffered a heart attack in 1971 as her health declined.

She never enjoyed the comforts of well-being, endured a long catalogue of illnesses, and faced fearful diabolical temptations, yet she never gave in. Her whole life was a constant and marvelous exercise of meeting pain and the Passion with a serene heart and love, offering herself for others while forgetting herself. Sharing in the sufferings of Christ filled her heart with a love and consolation that only divine grace can pour out. She died of a heart attack at Rovigo on 30 January 1980 at about two o'clock in the morning. Her remains rest in the parish church of Bosaro, where her tomb has become a place of veneration. Declared Venerable by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012 and beatified at Rovigo on 7 September 2013 by Cardinal Angelo Amato in the name of Pope Francis, she is held up to the faithful as a silent witness of the Gospel in discretion, joy, charity, daily labor, and fidelity.

Imitate today her quiet charity that forgets self and offers every trial in union with Christ.

Christians make no noise, they make no news. But "like the trees of the forest, which grow healthy and oxygenate the air, they live the good news of the Gospel in discretion and often in marginalization.

They do not serve idols, but Christ, the way, the truth and the life." The image was reproposed by Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, to frame the figure and work of Maria Bolognesi who today, Saturday 7 September, was proposed "to the contemplation, admiration and imitation of the faithful" with her beatification. The cardinal celebrated the rite on behalf of the Holy Father, in the cathedral of Rovigo.

The recourse to the silent testimony offered by so many lay people was suggested to the cardinal precisely by the life led by this daughter of the diocese of Adria-Rovigo, a pearl of that "precious necklace of laymen and laywomen, confessors and martyrs — as he said in his homily — which attests to the strong vitality of the faith of our people, who know how to discern, appreciate and even live with heroism the Gospel of Christ, downsizing or completely silencing the vanity and vacuity of so much useless talking".

Their discretion and silence "in joy, in charity, in daily industriousness and in fidelity, their identity as Christians" do not, however, mean "absence or insensitivity towards today's society — he said again — but a wise detachment from an ephemeral, empty world that is increasingly distant from evangelical wisdom and therefore increasingly inhumane".

Yet the situation in today's society seems to demonstrate that Christians are there, they speak, act and do good, but they are not appreciated, accepted, followed. Resorting to a quotation from the Letter to Diogneto, the cardinal underlined what he defined as "a glaring, indisputable and paradoxical truth: Christians, despite contempt, marginalization and persecution, are the soul of the world. Without them the world would be an inhumane and unlivable jungle."

In this context, the cardinal inserted the experience of Blessed Maria Bolognesi, who "lived an extraordinary experience of communion with God and of generous and total charity towards her neighbor, but the world does not know her, does not consider her its own, ignores her. The Church, however, a good and wise mother, knows this daughter of hers and sees in her an heroic witness to the Gospel of Christ, honors and celebrates her."

For fifty-five years, she lived her mystical betrothal to the Lord in absolute discretion.

Ever since she was a child, she experienced the blackest poverty and the most humiliating marginalization. "It is moving — said Cardinal Amato — to read about this experience of hers as a child, rejected by her peers: 'Often the children did not want me to play with them because I was the daughter of N.N.; alone I would go to my grandmother's vegetable garden to see if I could catch a little butterfly. Oh! If Jesus had given me little wings too, when the children don't want me with them, I would fly away faster.' But Jesus did not marginalize her; indeed, He looked with affection upon this poor and ignorant daughter of His, who loved Him so much and who always thought of Him. Maria resembled the wise virgins of the Gospel parable. She kept watch with the lamp of faith always lit, waiting for the divine Spouse to knock on her door and introduce her to the wedding."

The life of a saint, he added, "is not a carriage ride, but a via crucis. Maria's life is no exception. She worked very hard, never enjoyed the comforts of well-being, suffered a long list of ailments, and endured frightening demonic temptations." But she never gave up. She did not have worldly education " אך but she had the wisdom given to her by the Lord — the cardinal underlined — who spoke to her every day, associating her with the sufferings of His passion and the flame of His charity. Her many mystical charisms did not prevent her from spending herself in charity towards her neighbor, especially towards children."

Her life, despite its apparent normality, was rich in mystical experiences. But "these were not the strong signs of her holiness — specified Cardinal Amato — which, instead, was expressed in the practice of boundless charity towards God and neighbor." Her spirituality can be called the "spirituality of the everyday," made of trust in God, of the presence of God in the small events of life, and of prompt and sincere obedience to His divine will.

What can be his message for the man of today? That "the good soil to receive the word of the Lord and make it bear fruit \u2014 the cardinal prefect answered in conclusion \u2014 is not the science of the world, but the wisdom of God, to be received with a simple and humble heart."

FRANCISCUS PP.

LITTERAE APOSTOLICAE

VENERABILI SERVAE DEI MARIAE BOLOGNESI CAELITUM BEATORUM TRIBUITUR DIGNITAS*

Ad perpetuam rei memoriam. — "Sed, quemadmodum communicatis Christi passionibus, gaudete, ut et in revelatione gloriae eius gaudeatis exsultantes" (1 Pe 4, 13).

The entire life of the Venerable Servant of God Maria Bolognesi was a constant and admirable exercise in pain and passion, which she met with a serene spirit and love, offering herself to others while completely forgetting herself. Communion with the sufferings of Christ filled her heart at every moment with such love and consolation as only divine grace can impart.

She was born in the town of Bosaro, near Rovigo, close to Venice, on October 21, 1924. As a girl and young woman, she experienced extreme poverty, which was made worse by the birth of seven other siblings, making the family's economic conditions even more unstable. In addition to deprivation, she suffered from severe illnesses that afflicted her throughout her entire life. She was only able to attend elementary school. Her maternal grandmother, through examples of a simple and true faith, imparted great religious and moral values to her: love for Jesus, her neighbor, and nature. The bond of devotion that the Servant of God established with Christ from her childhood distinguished her entire spiritual journey. A deep sense of duty and love for her family compelled the young girl to maturely assume a great weight of responsibility, leading her to both work in the fields and educate her brothers and sisters. To these were soon added a group of other children entrusted to her by mothers who were detained by hard labor in the fields. For they considered her, despite her youth, because of her strong and magnanimous character, to be their only certain, faithful, and loving help. This natural inclination of hers toward love for her neighbor, especially the most needy, soon became in her a true will to dedicate herself to the ministry of the poorer, the sick, and the abandoned. Indeed, from her youth she was well aware of the utmost importance of a bond with the Church, for which reason she asked the Bishop for a spiritual father to whom she could humbly turn and whom she could obediently obey in treading the path of Christian perfection.

Her premature experience of pain aroused in her a devotion to Christ suffering, generating a singular communion with His Passion, of which she had a clear vision and participation from 1944, so that she received His wounds in herself. This union of hers with Christ suffering caused her to recognize Him in the very many faces of suffering people, whom she tried to serve and console with love and total dedication until the very last day of her life, becoming a loving sister and mother to all. The Venerable Servant of God promptly had a clear vocation, not only to a spousal union with Christ, but also to the work of offering, prayer, and penance.

In 1949, she offered herself as a victim for the good of her brothers and sisters and especially of priests; this peculiar condition brought with it the silent acceptance of all the hardships of mind and body, which indeed poured back upon Maria in almost ritual number. She soon saw her life transformed into a sort of "liturgy of the passion," which she lived with a sense of magnanimous participation in the Passion of the Lord, in a clear, constant, and conscious meditation on death, for which with every stroke she serenely prepared and offered herself. As she grew older, her health steadily worsened, which nevertheless in no way hindered her multiform and magnanimous beneficial activity, which she carried out by visiting the sick, staying by their side at night in hospitals and sanatoriums, collecting money and prime necessities for many poor families, and above all welcoming orphans into institutions or families. Her firm faith even in the greatest difficulties and her power of consolation were effective in inspiring serenity and instilling trust in divine mercy even in those afflicted by serious moral conditions, incurable diseases, and the dying. A growing heart condition, which caused a severe myocardial infarction in 1971, and her worsening health diminished her active industry. She lived in a condition of infirmity and difficulty, to which were added misunderstandings that she bore with serene indulgence. After months of severe sufferings, at night on January 30, 1980, in Rovigo, she surrendered her soul to God.

As the fame of sanctity grew, the diocesan Inquiry into the heroic virtues was carried out in the Diocese of Adria-Rovigo, the validity of which was recognized by the Decree of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on the 25th day of May in the year 2001. The theological consultors gathered in a Special Session on the 24th day of June in the year 2011 favored this opinion; and the Cardinal Fathers and Bishops judged likewise in the Ordinary Session on the 6th day of March of the following year. Thereafter, a certain miraculous healing that had taken place was presented, which the medical consultors on the 5th day of July in the year 2012 judged to be scientifically inexplicable. The theological consultors in a Special Congress on the 19th day of November of the same year attributed this healing to the intercession of the Venerable Servant of God; the Cardinal Fathers and Bishops delivered the same opinion in the Ordinary Session on the 9th day of April in the year 2013. From then on We granted the faculty to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to issue the Decree concerning this matter and We decreed that the rite of beatification should be performed in Rovigo on the 7th day of September of the same year. Today, therefore, in Rovigo, by Our mandate, Our Venerable Brother Angelo Cardinal Amato, S.D.B., Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, read the text of the Apostolic Letter by which We enroll the Venerable Servant of God Maria Bolognesi among the blessed:

We, fulfilling the desires of Our Brother Lucio Soravito de Franceschi, Bishop of Adria-Rovigo, as well as of many other Brothers in the Episcopate and of many of the faithful, having consulted the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, by Our Apostolic authority grant the faculty that the Venerable Servant of God Maria Bolognesi, a laywoman, who, sustained by the Gospel of charity, became a servant of the suffering in body and spirit, imitating Jesus Crucified, shall henceforth be called by the name of Blessed, and that her feast may be celebrated every year, in the places and according to the manner established by law, on the 30th day of January, the day on which she was born into heaven. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

What We have decreed, We wish to have force now and in the future, anything to the contrary notwithstanding.

Given at Rome, at Saint Peter's, under the ring of the Fisherman, on the 7th day of September, in the year 2013, the first of Our Pontificate.

By mandate of the Supreme Pontiff in place of the Secretary of State PIETRO PAROLIN Titular Archbishop of Acquapendente