Clelia Merloni

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Blessed Clelia Merloni (1861–1930)
Tomb of the blessed in the house chapel

Clelia Merloni (born March 10, 1861 in Forlì , Italy ; † November 21, 1930 in Rome , Italy) was an Italian nun and founder of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus . She is venerated as a blessed by the Catholic Church. Her liturgical feast day is November 20th.

Life

Clelia Merloni was born in Forlì on March 10, 1861 and a few hours later she was baptized in the Cathedral of Forlì by Bishop Pietro Paolo Trucchi. Her parents were Gioacchino Merloni and Teresa Brandinelli. When Clelia was three years old, her mother died. Her father, a wealthy businessman, married Maria Giovanna Boeri in 1866, who, together with her maternal grandmother, took care of Clelia's Christian upbringing. Her father, who was very concerned about his business and his social status, distanced himself more and more from his Christian faith and turned to Freemasonry, which Clelia suffered greatly. Clelia prayed many for her father's conversion. Her father wanted her to have the best possible upbringing and education so that she could later take over his business. Clelia learned reading, arithmetic and languages, but also embroidery and playing the piano at a private school.

Clelia's father planned a good wedding and a luxurious life for his daughter. But she felt called to a consecrated life in an order. In 1892 she joined the Congregation of the "Daughters of Mary of Providence" founded by Luigi Guanella in Como . There she fell ill with a severe and serious lung condition. The doctors were already hopeless, but after a prayer novena to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, Clelia miraculously recovered. In it she recognized the commission of God to found a community of sisters consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which took care of the poor, wise and abandoned. On May 30, 1894, she and two companions founded the "Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus" in Viareggio .

The community grew rapidly and Clelia opened schools, orphanages and homes for the elderly, with financial support from her father. When her father died in San Remo on June 27, 1895, Clelia inherited all of his fortune. To her great joy, he had been converted to the faith on his deathbed.

Financial problems caused by a fraudulent asset manager forced the young community to leave Viareggio. The reputation and trust in the sisters and especially in the founder Clelia Merloni was gone. After the sisters settled in Broni, Clelia later met Giovanni Battista Scalabrini , Bishop of Piacenza , who helped her to solve the problems and invited her and her sisters to his diocese. He granted the congregation and its rule of life episcopal recognition. On June 10, 1900, Clelia and ten other sisters took vows in their congregation. Clelia and her fellow sisters became involved in missions abroad and founded new conventions, first in Brazil and then in the USA. In 1903 there were already 30 branches in Italy and North and South America and almost 200 sisters belonged to the congregation.

As the congregation grew, difficulties emerged again both outside and within the community. There were again financial and legal problems caused by the embezzlement of the counselors of mother Clelia. Two different camps were formed within the congregation, divided over the missionary orientation and spirituality of the community. Mother Clelia took full responsibility for the problems of the congregation. After the death of Bishop Scalabrini in 1905, the motherhouse was moved to Alessandria.

Mother Clelia's reputation within and outside of the congregation was deteriorating due to the many problems, rumors and slander. At times she had to give up her office as General Superior and the Congregation was visited several times by the Vatican. In 1911 she was finally deposed as Superior General by decree of the Vatican. Marcelline Vigano was elected Superior General as his successor. Clelia was no longer involved in decisions affecting the congregation she founded. By order of the Vatican Congregation for Religious, the Congregation gave itself new constitutions.

Unsuccessfully, Clelia asked for the situation to be re-examined by the Vatican and decided in her favor. But she received no answer to her request. The sisters fell apart within the congregation as some of them continued to cling to Clelia as superior. In 1916, Clelia decided with a heavy heart to plead for release from her vows and to leave the community in order to restore the inner peace of the congregation.

She spent her exile in Turin, Roccagiovine and Marcellina. For Clelia, the years of exile were a time of health and inner trials in search of God's will for her life. The sisters of her congregation were forbidden to have any contact with her or any support for her. Any memory of her was prevented in the congregation, so that new sisters no longer knew anything about the actual founder. During the exile of the founder, the congregation received papal approval on July 17, 1921.

On February 28, 1928, Clelia asked for permission to return to her sisters' community. This permission was given to her on March 7, 1928 and she was allowed to move to the Generalate in Rome. There, weakened by illness and age, she lived in a room far away from the sisters, but with access to a small gallery above the altar of the house chapel. So she spent the last two years of her life in meditation, adoration of the Eucharist and prayer for her fellow sisters.

On November 21, 1930, Clelia died at the age of 69 in the Roman generalate of the congregation she had founded. She was buried on the Campo Verano. In 1945, her corpse was found in the cemetery, which had been partially destroyed by bombs, and was transferred to the chapel of the Generalate.

  • Generalate in Rome

  • Room of Blessed Clelia Merloni

  • View from the gallery into the chapel

  • Memorabilia

  • Memorabilia

  • Memorabilia

  • Memorabilia

beatification

The congregation founded by Clelia Merloni asked in 1988 that the process of beatification be opened for its founder. After the Congregation for the Causes of Saints gave her "nihil obstat" on May 18, 1990 and awarded her the title "Servant of God", the process began at the diocesan level in Rome on June 18, 1998. On April 1, the Diocesan process completed.

In 2014 the positio was communicated to the congregation. After the theologians and historians rated the positio positively, Pope Francis signed the decree on the heroic degree of virtue on December 1, 2016 and awarded Clelia Merloni the title of "Venerable Servant of God".

The miracle required for beatification was examined from January 24, 2005 to April 11, 2011: the Brazilian doctor Pedro Ângelo de Oliveira Filho fell ill with Guillain-Barré syndrome in 1951 . After a prayer novena to Mother Clelia and the administration of drinking water containing a relic of her material, the patient, who was already paralyzed and abandoned by the doctors, was inexplicably cured of his illness. After theologians and physicians came to a positive assessment of the supernatural in 2017, Pope Francis signed the decree for the recognition of the miracle on January 27, 2018 at the intercession of Clelia Merloni.

On November 3, 2018, Clelia Merloni was beatified by Giovanni Angelo Cardinal Becciu on behalf of Pope Francis in the Lateran Basilica .

Her grave is in the Generalate of the Congregation in Rome (Via Germano Sommeiller 38).

  • Celebration of the beatification on November 4, 2018 in San Giovanni in Laterano

  • Tomb of the blessed in the house chapel

Remembrance day

Her feast day in the liturgy of the Catholic Church is November 20th.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Merloni, Clelia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian Roman Catholic nun and founder, Blessed
DATE OF BIRTH March 10, 1861
PLACE OF BIRTH Forlì , Italy
DATE OF DEATH November 21, 1930
Place of death Rome , Italy