Saint’s Corner
St. Mary Di Rosa
On December 15th we celebrate the memorial of St. Mary Di Rosa. Mary was born with the given name Pauline in 1813 in Brescia, the sixth of nine children. At the age of 17 her father had arranged for her to be married (as was customary at that time) but she did not wish to wed. She went to her parish priest and explained the situation. The priest agreed to talk to her father and her father agreed not to marry her off. Mary continued to live at home and worked more and more with young women in need of spiritual direction in her area. In 1836, a great outbreak of cholera broke out and she went to work tending the sick. She went on to run a house for abandoned girls before founding her own and a school for deaf-and-dumb girls two years later. All of this was done while she was not yet 30 years old. Mary founded the Handmaids of Charity which focused on ministering to the sick and suffering. The congregation was approved by Pope Pius IX in 1850. Mary devoted her life to ministering to the sick and died in 1855. She was canonized a Saint in 1954.