SISTER FOUNDRESSES

Recently made Venerable are two sisters who founded the Benedictine Sisters of Divine Providence.  

GIUSTINA SCHIAPPAROLI and MARIA SCHIAPPAROLI were born in Castel San Giovanni, Italy.  Maria in 1815 and Giustina in 1819.

In 1847  they  started  to care for abandoned  children and orphans, beginning with a small school.  Because of their work and great trust in Divine Providence, they were loved by the people and by the clergy.  In 1850 the Bishop of  Tortona,  Giovanni Negri,  accepted their  religious profession and gave them “canonical” status. 

The small religious family grew and were strengthened by the two foundresses who  welcomed all the children and the youth who knocked at the door of the “Cenobio of the Benedictines”, as it was called. A spirit of family  was the foundation stone of the educative work of the foundresses.                                              

One virtue which characterized the life of Maria was  humility. She lived a life of silence, secret prayer, and faithful obedience to the rules of her more dynamic and energetic sister, Mother Giustina, superior of the  new Institute, even though she was the elder. She shared with her the hard works and the responsibility of the foundation. She was called the “Holy Shadow” . 

At Voghera and Vespolate, where she was a superior, she was the “little servant of all”, attentive and dedicated in  serving the sisters and the children. She had great confidence in Divine Providence. Venerable Maria died  in 1882 at Vespolate, where she was buried.

Virtues which characterized the life of Giustina was charity,  humility and heroic strength. She was the driving force for the foundation of the Benedictine Sisters of Divine Providence. With the children , the postulants, and sisters she showed maternal charity, which later in her life caused her great pain and suffering.  Venerable  Giustina died in 1877 at Voghera.

Both  foundresses had a great devotion to the Eucharist as well as the Mother of God.

At present the Benedictine Sisters of Divine Providence operates in Italy, Albania, Romania, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Mexico, Argentina, India, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya,  and Malawi.