MODERN WOMEN BENEDICTINE SAINTS

 

The BENEDICTINES  have more Saints and Doctors of the Church than any other religious group, largely because their history stretches back to the 6th century.  But  the number of saints begins to thin out in the latter part of the Middle Ages, as the emphasis shifts to more active orders, and then dries up almost altogether in the modern period, apart from the martyrs of the Reformation and French Revolution.

Somewhere I once read that many in the cloister are unknown, whereas saints who were in active apostolates were visible to the church and laity. Needless to say, in the last five hundred years the other major religious orders have very many more canonized saints.

This may be starting to change as there are a good number of Benedictines on the path to canonization, showing the enduring power of the Benedictine charism. Here is a list of those Benedictines (we include Cistercians/Trappists as part of the Benedictine family and also priest and lay oblates) who have been beatified, declared venerable, or whose cause has been opened on the diocesan level with the title Servant of God.

In past Blogs we mentioned: 

Bl. Gertrude Prosper (Religious) -. Blog October 25, 2018

Bl. Maria Gabriella Sagheddu, (Religious)- January 2019

Bl. Hanna Helena Chrzanowska (Oblate)-, April 6, 2018

Venerable Itala Mela  (Oblate)  - 2016

Servant of God Dorothy Day (Oblate)  Blog 2010

Interestingly enough, it is the woman who are now in the " race" for sainthood. We consider another woman.

BL. MARIA ADEODATA PISANI, OSB was born into a noble family in Naples, Italy in 1806. She was the  only daughter of Benedetto Pisani Mompalao Cuzkeri and Vincenza Carrano. Her father held the title of Baron of Frigenuin, one of the oldest and richest baronies in Malta and her mother was Italian. 

Her father was an alcoholic and this  led to marital problems, so much so that while Maria was still a small child her mother left the home, entrusting the child's care to her mother-in-law, Elisabeth Mamo Mompalao, who lived in Naples. Elisabeth was a decent caregiver, but died when her granddaughter was only ten years old. After her grandmother’s death, Maria was sent to a boarding school in Naples where the daughters of the local aristocracy received their education.

In 1821 her father was involved in the uprising in Naples and sentenced to death. Since he was a British citizen, his sentence was suspended and King Ferdinand II of Naples had him expelled from Naples and deported to the Mediterranean island of Malta. In 1825, Maria and her mother came to live in Malta, settling in Rabat.

 During these years, Maria declined several marriage proposals because she preferred to lead a quiet life of prayer. Besides suffering from delicate health, Maria had a deformed shoulder, caused, it was testified, by injuries sustained at the hands of a maid who beat  her when she lived with her grandmother in Naples.

When she turned 21, she entered the Benedictine Community in St. Peter's Monastery and took the name Maria Adeodata. She made her solemn profession two years later.

In the cloister, Maria was a seamstress, sacristan, porter, teacher and novice mistress. Her fellow nuns and many people outside the cloister benefited from her charity.

Bl. Maria Adeodata wrote various works, the most well-known of these is a collection of her personal reflections between the years 1835 and 1843 titled “The Mystical Garden of the Soul That Loves Jesus and Mary”.

 She was an abbess from 1851 to 1853 but had to retire from her duties because she suffered from heart problems.

 On Feb. 25, 1855, at the age of 48 and in poor health, she dragged herself to the chapel for Mass, against her nurse’s advice. After receiving Communion, she had to be carried back to bed where she died soon afterward.

 She had a simple funeral and was buried in the monastery’s crypt the following day. She was remembered for her sanctity, love of the poor, self-imposed sacrifices, and ecstasies so complete that she was seen levitating.

The miracle required for her beatification  (November 24,1897)  in which Abbess Giuseppina Damiani from the Monastery of Saint John the Baptist  in Subiaco was suddenly healed of a stomach tumor following her request for Maria Adeodata’s intervention.

 “Sister Adeodata’s holy example certainly helped to promote the renewal of religious life in her own Monastery. I therefore wish to commend to her intercession a special intention of my heart. Much has been done in recent times to adapt religious life to the changed circumstances of today, and the benefit of this can be seen in the lives of very many men and women religious. But there is need for a renewed appreciation of the deeper theological reasons for this special form of consecration. We still await a full flowering of the teaching of the Second Vatican Council on the transcendent value of that special love of God and others which leads to the vowed life of poverty, chastity and obedience. I commend to all consecrated men and women the example of personal maturity and responsibility which was wonderfully evident in the life of Blessed Adeodata."

Pope John Paul II, from the beatification Mass of Blessed Maria, 9 May 2001.

Her feast is celebrated February 25.