Armida Barelli

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Armida Barelli (born December 1, 1882 in Milan , † August 15, 1952 in Varese ) was an activist in the Catholic Action of Italy , co-founder of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan and the secular institutes Missionaries of the Kingship of Christ .

Life

Crypt in the chapel of the Kath. University of Milan

She was born the second daughter of a wealthy middle-class family. First she attended the Ursuline School in Milan. At the age of 13 she went to the college of the Sisters of the Holy Cross in Menzingen ( Switzerland ) for further schooling, which she graduated with a certificate in 1900. Until 1910, Barelli spent her youth searching for an ideal life and devoting herself to the teachings of the gospel .

Meeting with Father Gemelli

Her first meeting with Agostino Gemelli in 1910 had a major impact on her later life. She joined the third order of the Franciscans and from January 1917 supported Father Gemelli in the pastoral care of the Italian soldiers during the First World War . This initiative also spread to the allied armies of France , Belgium and England .

Activist in the Catholic Action

In 1917 she was asked by Andrea Carlo Cardinal Ferrari the Archbishop of Milan to take over the founding of a women's movement within the Catholic Action. On February 17, 1917 she founded with the approval of Pope Benedict XV. the first female group of Catholic women in Italy, which she presided over as “General President of Catholic Women in Italy” until 1946. At Barelli's instigation, the beatification process for the six-year-old girl Antonietta Meo , known as Nennolina, was opened in 1942 .

Secular institute and university

In November 1919 she founded the “Missionaries of the Kingdom of Christ” together with Father Gemelli, on his initiative, with eleven Franciscans. When Father Gemelli founded the Catholic University in Milan in 1921, she took over the management of the company's finances, in 1924 she founded a support association and led it with the consent of Pope Pius XI. a “University Day”, which still takes place in the spring of each year.

After the Second World War

In the time of fascism Armida Barelli gathered a large crowd of women who turned against power in a kind of "resistance movement". Three years after the Second World War she commissioned Pope Pius XII. with the establishment of a female democratic party to counterbalance communism . At the university she continued to work on the board of directors until she lost her vote in 1949 due to a serious illness (bulbar paralysis). As a result of the illness, she died on August 15, 1952 and was buried in the crypt of the Catholic University of Milan.

Beatification process

The process of beatification was opened in 1962, and on July 17, 1970, Cardinal Giovanni Colombo approved and handed it over to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints . On June 1, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI announced Armida Barelli to the Venerable Servant of God .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Venerabile Armida Barelli. July 9, 2012, accessed September 30, 2016 (Italian).
  2. ^ Audience for the Catholic Action of Italy by Pope Benedict XVI.
  3. ^ Message on the occasion of the "University Day 1989" (Italian) Messaggio in occasione della "Giornata Universitaria 1989"
  4. ^ Regina Coeli , Address by Pope Benedict XVI. [1]

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Barelli, Armida
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian Catholic activist
DATE OF BIRTH December 1, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH Milan
DATE OF DEATH 15th August 1952
Place of death Varese