The Nursing Nun

Today's saint bloomed where she was planted by continuing her calling even though her family needed her assistance.

St. Maria Crocifissa Di Rosa

Feast day: December 15
Born 1813
Death 1855
Italy

Maria was born to a wealthy family and was educated by the Sisters of the Visitation.  She left school after the death of her mother and by age seventeen she was running her father's household and caring for the girls in her father's mill and estate.

During the cholera epidemic of 1836 she worked in the hospital in Brescia and became well known as she directed a home for girls and began another residence for deaf and mute young ladies.

However, through it all her greatest desire was to enter into the convent.  At the age of thirty, she finally was able to follow her calling, and would eventually create a new order known as the Handmaids of Charity.  The sisters mission was to care for the poor, the sick and the suffering.  They would soon minister to the wounded on the battlefields of northern Italy and in hospitals.

Her spirituality was grounded in the imitation of Christ’s suffering on the Cross. This was the basis of her teaching and contemplation. In her love of the crucified Christ, she translated her dedication to him towards the suffering members of his Mystical Body.

She continued her work until she died in 1855.

St. Maria Crocifissa Di Rosa, pray for us!