A MODEL OF ORDINARY HOLINESS

 

 

We see more and more holy young people, who can be a example of a short life "well lived". In a past Blog we saw Venerable Matteo Farina (July 2020).  Now we have another young woman who I am sure will become more known as her cause is put forward for sainthood.

SERVANT of GOD PAOLA ADAMO was born in Naples on October 24, 1963, daughter of Claudio Adamo and Lucia D'Ammacco. She was baptized on the same day of her birth in the chapel of the Posillipo clinic, where she was born at 3 am. Her parents, both architects by profession, were also Salesian Cooperators and catechists. It was they who prepared the child for her First Communion, which took place on May 28, 1972 in the parish of San Giovanni Bosco in Taranto, and for Confirmation, which was given to her two years later, on June 22. Her father had been commissioned as the designer of that very church. Paola grew up and was educated in the Salesian oratory environment.

 

She loved her parents, to whom she dedicated her poems. She attended classical dance lessons and practiced swimming for three years. She played the guitar easily, happy to sing and play for her parents. Her irrepressible joy for life was also expressed in her contacts with her classmates, whom she loved very much. She attended the "Lisippo" Art School in Taranto, where her father was a teacher. In particular, she preferred the company of girls who were marginalized by the rest of the class. One of these later became her best friend.  For Paola life was grace and should be lived as grace.

 Sensitive and intelligent, she began to write a secret diary at the age of nine, a source of very profound thoughts and maxims despite her age. Every evening she read a few pages of the biography of Saint John Bosco written by Cardinal Carlo Salotti and examined her conscience very carefully. She wrote about it in one of her poems:

 "When in the evening, before falling asleep, I take stock of the day, I am left with so much bitterness for the free hours that have slipped away so stupidly and I find myself with eyes full of tears."

One morning in June 1978, when the school year was about to end, Paola asked her parents for permission not to go to school: she said she had a pain in her right side. Her mother agreed, while her father, at first, did not believe her and told her to go. As the daughter of a teacher, she should not set a bad example.

 On the evening of June 9, while she was sitting in an armchair, Paola felt cold.  Her parents saw that she had a fever,  but they left for Naples anyway, where they were spending the holidays. Once she returned home, her situation did not improve anf on Friday, June 23, 1978, she was admitted to a clinic. 

The doctor diagnosed viral hepatitis, an illness that Paola had already had as a child. The next day the diagnosis was confirmed, but the girl was now in a pre-comatose state. After a two-hour journey, she was brought back to Naples and on the evening of June 25, she was admitted to the Cotugno hospital. 

On June 27, she received the Anointing of the Sick. The next day, she was already in serious condition. Paola died on June 28, 1978, at the age of 14, struck by a viral hepatitis.

43 years later, the Archbishop of Taranto, Monsignor Filippo Santoro, presided over the installation of the diocesan tribunal for the cause of beatification and canonization of the Servant of God Paola Adamo.

Paola is a model of holiness for the youth of  today. She lived an ordinary lfe, but lived it extraordinally. She saw God in everyone and evrything. She had a great love for her family, the Church, her friends, putting Jesus at the center of her life.

"If you believe in God you have the world in your hands." Everyone who knew her were inspired by her love of life and beauty.  "If God is the source of everything, only He can make us really happy."