† St. Paola Elisabetta Cerioli † (December 24)

† Saint of the Day †

(December 24)

✠ St. Paola Elisabetta Cerioli ✠

Religious:

Born: January 28, 1816
Soncino, Cremona, Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia

Died: December 24, 1865 (Aged 49)
Comonte di Seriate, Bergamo, Kingdom of Italy

Venerated in: Roman Catholic Church

Beatified: March 19, 1950
Pope Pius XII

Canonized: May 16, 2004
Pope John Paul II

Feast: December 24

Patronage:
Institute of Sisters of the Holy Family
Family of Bergamo

Saint Paola Elisabetta Cerioli, born Costanza Cerioli Buzecchi-Tasis, was an Italian Roman Catholic widow and the founder of both the Institute of Sisters of the Holy Family and the congregation of the Family of Bergamo.

The early years:
Costanza Cerioli was born on 28 January 1816 in Soncino, in the province and diocese of Cremona, the last of the sixteen children of Francesco Cerioli and Francesca Corniani, both nobles. She was of delicate and delicate constitution, so she was baptized on 2 February 1816 in the archpriest church of Santa Maria Assunta in Soncino.

She grew up maturing great spiritual virtues that his mother, with his sensitivity, was able to develop. From the age of ten to sixteen, Costanza was entrusted to the edict of the nuns of the Visitation in Alzano Maggiore (today Alzano Lombardo), where he was noted for the goodness of the soul and diligence in the study.

On 15 May 1831, Constance returned to his family: he continued his studies and, at the same time, continued to support the peasant populations and to engage in household chores.

The marriage with Gaetano Busecchi:
She was 19 when her parents returned to her family and asked her to marry Gaetano Busecchi: 58, a widower of Countess Maria Teresa Tassis, resided in Comonte di Seriate as a landowner. Constance accepted, seeing in that marriage combined one of the stages of God's project for her.

The wedding was celebrated on April 30, 1835. Constance tried to be generous, patient and docile to the spouse, who was much older than her, sickly, whimsical and passionate about music; he, in his own way, returned his affection.

The loss of all children:
They had four children: the first, Francesca Maria Teresa, died at six months of life; the third, Raffaele Gaetano, one year after birth. The fourth son, however, was born dead. The only one who survived infancy was, therefore, Carlo, the second son, who nevertheless fell ill with tuberculosis at 16 years of age.

On his deathbed, the boy tried to console his mother: "Mom, don't cry for my next death, because God will give you so many other children to provide for."

Widow:
Carlo died on 16 January 1854: shortly thereafter, on 25 December 1854, Gaetano Busecchi also died. Constance, who was 39 years old, found herself alone, with a rich heritage and with the last words of her son that resounded in her heart.

Helped by Monsignor Alessandro Valsecchi, who had already educated the young Carlo, he realized that he had to rely even more on God and that he had to draw something good from what he called, in a letter to the spiritual director, "the greatest misfortune".

After the Spiritual Exercises that followed in 1855, Costanza began to dedicate herself to works of charity, in which she engaged the immense patrimony inherited from her husband. He visited and cared for the sick and, moreover, opened his palace to the neediest. But it was the discovery of the suffering of so many children and orphan children to make them guess the meaning of their son's last words.

The beginning of the work for orphans:
Contemplating Our Lady as Sorrowful and putting himself under the protection of Saint Joseph, Constance realized how they themselves had made themselves available to God's plan; thus he prolonged his motherhood and fatherhood in caring for the poor.

She began by taking two orphaned girls into the house, and many others were added to them. Later, he decided to open a rural school for the girls of Comonte and neighboring countries, while the first steps were being taken towards industrialization that penalized the poorer sections of the population.

On 1 November 1856 Constance received from the bishop of Bergamo, Monsignor Pietro Luigi Speranza, a method of life for himself and for the women he had called to himself, entrusting them with training and assistance to the "Daughters of St. Joseph", as he called the orphans.

Birth of the Sisters of the Holy Family:
On 8 December 1856, Costanza and her collaborators wore their new uniform: that was the birth certificate of the Sisters of the Holy Family. On January 23, 1858, two years later, Costanza consecrated herself to God: she changed her name to Sister Paola Elisabetta, wearing, from then on, a wooden cross over her clothes.

The following July 8, the foundress and the sisters dressed the actual religious habit, while on January 23, 1859, the first six Sisters of the Holy Family made their temporary profession of vows. On June 27, 1862, Monsignor Speranza issued the decree approving the Institute of the Sisters of the Holy Family.

The spirit that animated the houses that were increasing was that of the sober poverty of the Family of Nazareth, to give the orphans what life had taken away from them. In fact, he wrote in the Rules: "Let us love these poor daughters, and let us have them instead of father, mother, brothers whom God has taken from them to put us in their place".

The Fathers of the Holy Family:
The year following the diocesan decree on the female institute, November 4, 1863, Mother Paola Elisabetta also founded the Fathers of the Holy Family, priests, and brothers, dedicated to working in the fields and to the apostolate towards young peasants.
She was contacted by Don Luigi Maria Palazzolo, a priest from Bergamo (beatified in 1963), who had already started the Institute of the Sisters of the Poor and was determined to found a similar one, male, for the children of poor peasants.

Due to differences in the purposes of the two founders, the agreement was unsuccessful, but Don Palazzolo brought Martinengo, home of the Fathers of the Holy Family, to his first three male disciples. However, his Brothers of the Holy Family died out in 1928.

The death of mother Paola Elisabetta:
Sister Paola Elisabetta consummated herself over ten years, spent between social assistance and religious activity: she died in Comonte on December 24, 1865, at the age of 49.

She was initially buried in the cemetery of Seriate, but twenty years after his death, on November 28, 1885, his mortal remains were transferred to the Mother House of the Sisters of the Holy Family, in Comonte, right in the small room where she died.

The cause of beatification:
On February 20, 1902, the ordinary process for the cause of beatification and canonization of Sister Paola Elisabetta opened. The decree for the introduction of the cause, which at the time marked the beginning of the Roman phase took May 14, 1919. The acts of the diocesan and apostolic processes were approved on December 11, 1923.

On July 2, 1939, Pope Pius XII declared her Venerable. After the approval of the two miracles then necessary, the same Pope beatified her on March 19 of the Holy Year 1950. The liturgical memory of Blessed Paola Elisabetta Cerioli, for the dioceses of Bergamo and Cremona and for the institutes she founded, was initially was established on 30 July; from 1982 it was set for January 23, the day on which she performed her consecration to God.

After the beatification, his remains were reassembled and exposed to the permanent veneration of the faithful in a crystal urn, always in the motherhouse of his sisters.

The further miracle and canonization:
Fifty years after the beatification, the diocesan process began on an alleged miracle attributed to Sister Paola Elisabetta. This was the case with Sister Michelina Rota, Sister of the Holy Family, who in June 1991 was diagnosed with grade II malignant fibrous histiocytoma, that is, an incurable tumor in the soft parts of the body.

The process, therefore, took place from 3 April 2000 to 22 October 2001; his acts were validated on April 12, 2002. The meeting of the Medical Council of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on December 5, 2002, reported a positive outcome: the sanitation seemed inexplicable according to medical science. The theological consultors, on May 2, 2003, pronounced themselves favorably on the connection between intercessory prayer to the Blessed and healing of the nun. The equally positive opinion of the cardinals and bishops of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints followed on 7 October 2003.

Finally, on December 20, 2003, Pope Saint John Paul II authorized the promulgation of the decree by which the recovery of Sister Michelina Rota was declared inexplicable, complete, lasting and occurred through the intercession of Blessed Paola Elisabetta Cerioli. The canonization was celebrated by the Pope himself in St. Peter's Square in Rome, Sunday, May 16, 2004.

The Sisters and Fathers of the Holy Family today:
The Sisters of the Holy Family received from Pope Leo XIII the Decree of praise, which bears the date of 22 September 1896. On 18 December 1901, instead, the pontifical decree of definitive approval was issued.

Today as then, the spiritual daughters of St. Paola Elisabetta continue their educational commitment especially in small and medium-sized urban centers, with a particular focus on respect for nature. Their parent company is in Comonte di Seriate (BG), in via Luigia Corti. They also count presences in mission lands, specifically in Brazil and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

As for the Fathers of the Holy Family, they obtained diocesan approval on 3 December 1868, the date of the official inauguration of Martinengo's house and the perpetual profession of the first religious, brother Giovanni Capponi.

They are legally independent of the Sisters, but they also recognize their foundress in mother Cerioli. They mainly play an integrative pastoral role in the recruitment of parishes and in the direction of school activities, especially in rural areas. They have homes in Italy, Brazil, and Mozambique.