EARTHLY FRIENDS

BL. CLARA (Dina) BOSATTA was born in 1858 in Como to Alessandro Bosatta and Rosa Mazzocchi - her father worked as a silk manufacturer who died in 1861 when she was but a toddler. She was the last of eleven siblings.

She studied with the Daughters of Charity at the age of thirteen in 1871; she also took work as a janitor around this time. She decided to consecrate her life to God and made the decision to become a nun so entered into the period of novitiate with the Canossians from 1871 to 1878; however she felt that their charism was not that of which she felt she was being called to and so left that congregation to pursue her vocation elsewhere.

She returned to her home and joined with her sister Marcellina and the two joined the Daughters of Mary that Father Carlo Copponi had established. Marcellina would later become the superior of the order. The pair also worked at a hospice to tend to neglected children and older people as well as teaching children.

They coordinated efforts at establishing a new religious congregation - the Daughters of Saint Mary of Providence, alongside St Luigi Guanella (see previous BLOG). It was at this point that she took the religious name of Clara. She was professed as a nun on 27 October 1878.

Tending to the poor bought unwanted consequences for her when she contracted tuberculosis, which would remain with her until the end of her life.   

She died on 20 April 1887.  

St. Luigi Guanella  wrote three biographies of  Bl. Clare. The first two were discovered in Como in 1981, during the reorganization of the Archives of the Mother House in Como, Italy. The composition of the oldest, A Flower of Virtue Transplanted from Earth to Paradise, was presumably started shortly after her death, and was possibly completed the following year. The original is entirely hand written by the author in two pamphlets of 77 pages.

In 1907 St. Luigi produced a more voluminous manuscript of 111 pages in four pamphlets. The twenty-two long chapters of Biographical Notes of Sr. Clare Bosatta follow the events of her life faithfully.

The last booklet reports the vast and detailed testimony that Bl. Luigi gave from August 8th-23rd, 1912, at the Diocesan Tribunal of Como for the process of the beatification of Sr. Clare.

Both texts always show, though at various levels of intensity, Fr. Guanella’s strong emotional involvement. We can understand how his deep relationship with Sr. Clare was decisive for his experience as a Christian, priest, spiritual guide and founder. Pope (St.) John Paul II presided over her beatification on 21 April 1991.

Intense prayer, acceptance of constant sufferings are the main paths that lead her to total conformity with Jesus and urged her to the summit of Christian perfection like an eagle, as her spiritual director, St. Luigi, liked to compare her with.