Pierina De Micheli

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Maria Pierina De Micheli (born September 11, 1890 in Milan , † July 26, 1945 in Centonara) was a Roman Catholic religious in the Congregation of the Daughters of the Immaculate Conception of Buenos Aires. She was beatified on May 10, 2010. Her feast day in the liturgy is September 11th.

Life

Mother Maria Pierina De Micheli was born on September 11th, 1890 as Giuseppina Franceschina Giovanna Maria De Micheli in Milan . Her parents were Luigina Radice and Cesare De Micheli. The couple had six other children: Angelina, Giovanna, Riccardo, Piero, Maria and Giuseppe, who, however, had died on May 8, 1889 at the age of 13. On the day of her birth, Giuseppina was baptized in the parish church of San Pietro in Sala. When Giuseppina was 18 months old, her father with a heart condition died. The mother took over the business; in the morning she went to mass and in the evening she said the rosary with the children. The eldest daughter, Angelina, took over the upbringing of the siblings.

Giuseppina was physically weak but had a strong character. There was an atmosphere of righteousness and piety in the family. Angelina brought her siblings and especially little Giuseppina closer to a spirituality that was characterized by the worship of the Eucharist as well as renunciation and silence. So Giuseppina began a deep, spiritual inner life at an early age.

On May 3, 1898, Giuseppina received First Communion in the parish church of San Pietro in Sala, and on June 26 of the same year by Angelo Maria Mantegazza, auxiliary bishop in Milan, the sacrament of Confirmation .

When Giuseppina was ten years old, her eldest sister Angelina entered the Milan Convention of Adoration Sisters .

On Good Friday of 1902 she attended the Good Friday liturgy in the parish church of San Pietro in Sala. During the veneration of the cross, the eleven-year-old Giuseppina heard the voice of Jesus Christ who asked her: "Doesn't anyone give me a kiss of love on my face to make up for the kiss of Judas ?" At that moment her special devotion to the holy face began.

Her sister Maria was dressed on October 1, 1909 in the community of the Ursulines of San Carlo . During this celebration Giuseppina felt the call to a consecrated life in a community.

She told her brother Riccardo, who had meanwhile become a priest, that the sisters of the community she wanted to join should wear robes the color of the sky. She found this community in the daughters of the Immaculate Conception of Buenos Aires, who had a convent in Via d´Elba in Milan. It was there that she met the founder of the community, Superior General Madre Maria Eufrasia Iaconis (* November 18, 1867, † August 2, 1916) and Sister Maria Standislada, who became important people to relate to in the first years of the order.

On October 15, 1913, Giuseppina entered the community of the Daughters of the Immaculate Conception of Buenos Aires and received the religious name Maria Pierina. She made her first temporary profession on May 23, 1915 .

After joining the order, she trained as a tailor and learned French. In addition, she began to take care of children and young people and their (religious) upbringing.

Although her mother had been promised that Sister Pierina would not have to leave Milan because of her poor health, the religious superiors decided that Sister Pierina should go to the motherhouse of the Congregation in Buenos Aires , Argentina. On May 21, 1919, she boarded the ship in Genoa and left Italy.

In Buenos Aires she worked as a teacher at the religious school. Although she initially struggled with Spanish, she taught mathematics there and trained as a teacher. In Buenos Aires, she suffered greatly from the separation from her mother and family and from the climate that repeatedly led to fainting attacks in her. But she sacrificed all suffering to God for the poor souls and the priests. On July 11, 1921, Sister Pierina made her perpetual profession in the mother house . She was then sent back to her native Italy and returned to the convent in Milan on November 5, 1921.

Her mother died on September 21, 1923. The day before she had tried to visit Pierina in the monastery. However, this could be denied in order to be able to sacrifice her pain for not seeing her beloved mother.

Her spiritual and maternal confidante, Sister Maria Stanislada, became Superior General of the community in 1928 .

On April 12, 1928, her co-sisters elected Sister Pierina as head of house of the Milan convent. The Superior General Madre Stanislada confirmed this choice. On September 27, 1928, Madre Stanislada died unexpectedly. Madre Pierina suffered greatly from this loss. The new Superior General confirmed Madre Pierina as House Superior of the Milan Convention and appointed her Delegate for Affairs in Italy.

Madre Pierina attached great importance to a spiritual as well as cultural education. For this reason, she intensified her efforts for elementary school and also opened a middle school, which was recognized by the state.

A prelate of the Roman Curia , Monsignor Spirito Chiappetta, gave the community a house in Centonara on Lake Orta, which the sisters use for retreats and recreation.

In 1936 she was elected superior in Milan for another three years.

A great wish of the community came true in 1938: a house in Rome. In consultation with the Superior General Madre Maria Filomena, Madre Pierina began to organize the new building at the foot of the Aventine on a site that Madre Maria Stanislada had already acquired. The new building was designed by Monsignor Spirito Chiappetta, a close collaborator of Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli , the patron of the community and later Pope Pius XII. , designed. Madre Pierina personally watched over the construction work of the new “Istituto Spirito Santo”.

In September 1939 Madre Pierina was elected superior of the new house in Rome. On January 6, 1940, she was appointed provincial superior. Madre Pierina also traveled regularly to Milan to take part in the life of her fellow sisters there.

During her time in Rome, Madre Pierina suffered from a serious lung disease, but at the intercession of St. Hermit's New Year's Eve was healed.

For Madre Pierina, the years in Milan and Rome were filled with intense and strenuous physical work. She was always busy with the administration of the convent, the organization of the schools, the care of new vocations for the community and the care of the spiritual life of her fellow sisters.

After the end of the Second World War , Madre Pierina traveled from Rome to Milan on June 7, 1945 and from there on to Centonara on July 1. She died there on July 26, 1945, a pneumonia and was buried on 29 July in the local cemetery.

In 1962 the beatification process was opened. In the course of this, the remains of Madre Pierina were transferred to Rome in 2007.

Spirituality and Adoration of the Holy Face

On Good Friday in 1902, 11-year-old Pierina heard the voice of Jesus. This experience awakened in her the special veneration of the holy face of Jesus. She later spread this veneration among her fellow sisters in the order as an effective remedy against the temptations of evil.

She was especially venerated to St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face , at whose canonization she was able to take part on May 17, 1925 in Rome.

As a religious sister, Pierina was first spiritually accompanied in Milan by the two Jesuits Father Marini and Father Rosi.

In Rome, however, Father Ildebrando Gregori , Abbot General of the New Year's Eve , had considerable influence on them. He was her confessor and soul guide who accompanied her until her death. It was also he who urged Madre Pierina to collect her memories and notes relating to her mystical experiences in the diary. Most of the writings, however, were destroyed at Madre Pierina's request. In the notes of Madre Pierina one discovers notes about extraordinary experiences and mystical phenomena, especially with regard to the veneration of the holy face:

She was regularly haunted by demons and 'the evil enemy' at night . These visits went hand in hand with emotional, but often also physical, suffering. During the beatification process, her fellow sisters reported nightly tumults and noise from Madre Pierina's room. Furnishings were destroyed or images of the holy face were torn and dishonored. Madre Pierina suffered badly from the encounters with the demons, but always tried to fulfill her duties and obligations, regardless of her own health. When fellow sisters spoke to her about the nocturnal events, Madre Pierina denied them.

Madre Pierina also regularly had visions of Jesus and the Blessed Mother Mary , who brought her messages and accepted their sufferings as atonement for poor souls. Again and again Jesus demanded of her that his holy face should be especially venerated. In a vision of the Blessed Mother on May 31, 1938, Madre Pierina was commissioned in the chapel of the Milan convent to further promote the veneration of the holy face of Jesus: the Blessed Mother asked her to make a scapular with the face of Jesus and on the front the reverse should show a host with the IHS monogram surrounded by rays. Our Lady promised great graces for those who wear this scapular and who visit the Blessed Sacrament every Tuesday and receive communion every day . Madre Pierina wanted to follow this instruction, but her soul guide recommended that instead of the scapular made of cloth, a medal should be made. She immediately tried to obtain permission from the archbishop's curia in Milan to produce and distribute this medal. However, she feared that a simple, insignificant religious sister like her would not get this permission. On August 9, 1940, Madre Pierina received the hoped-for approval from the archbishop's curia. She had a medal made with a reproduction of the face of Jesus from the Turin shroud on the front and a host embossed with the IHS monogram on the back. One day, Madre Pierina miraculously found the money for the production of the medals, 11,200 lire , in an envelope on her desk. In response to her concern that the Blessed Mother had given her a scapular and not a medal, the Blessed Mother appeared to her again and assured her that the medal would also convey the same graces .

In further visions, Jesus called for a special festival in honor of his holy face. This festival should be celebrated on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday and be prepared with a prayer novena .

Your spiritual director in Rome, Generel abt Ildebrando Gregori, supported Madre Pierina much in spreading the devotion to the Holy Face. Through the mediation of Monsignor Chiapetta she was twice by Pius XII. received in a private audience and was able to tell him about the invitation of Jesus and the veneration of the holy face.

On April 17, 1958, Pius XII approved the feast of the Holy Face for the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday.

Through contact with Father Ildebrando Gregori, Abbot General of the Benedictines of St. New Year's Eve ( Sylvestrine ) was Madre Pierina also an ardent admirer of the holy hermit Silvestro Guzzolini , the founder of the Benedictine Congregation . St. Silvestro Guzzolini appeared to her in several visions and on his intercession she attributed her healing from a serious lung disease.

  • Obverse Medal of the Holy Face

  • Back of the Medal of the Holy Face

Beatification process

The tomb of Madre Pierina in the chapel of the Istituto Spirito Santo

In 1962 the beatification process was opened in the Diocese of Novara . 24 witnesses were heard. From May 2nd, 1965 to February 17th, 1968 the trial in the Vicariate of Rome continued and 22 witnesses were questioned.

In 1970 the remains of Madre Pierina were exhumed and first transferred from the cemetery to the parish church of Centonara and then on May 2, 1970 to the crypt of the chapel of Volto Santo in the convent building.

On August 9, 2002, the trial of a miracle , which is said to have happened in 1994 at the intercession of Madre Pierina, was opened in the Diocese of Novara . This was completed on June 3, 2003.

Her remains were transferred from Centonara to Rome on March 23, 2007. They were buried on March 27th in the chapel of the Istituto Spirito Santo (Via Asinio Pollione 5). There they rest in a marble sarcophagus in the side chapel .

Pope Benedict XVI awarded her on December 17, 2007 the title " Venerable Servant of God ". On April 3, 2009, he signed the decree recognizing the miracle that had happened at her intercession. Angelo Cardinal Amato , Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints , celebrated the beatification on May 30, 2010 in the Roman basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore .

Remembrance day

The liturgical feast day is September 11th, the day of her birth and baptism.

Works

  • Diario diary of Maria Pierina di Micheli, San Paolo Edizioni, Milan, 2014, ISBN 978-88-215-9201-0 .
  • Consolare Gesù. Ecco la mia missione in terra , (edited by Nicola Gori) San Paolo Edizioni, Milan, 2010, ISBN 978-88-215-6955-5 .

literature

  • Maria Ildefonsa Rigamonti, Hilde Firtel: Emissary of St. Face. Sister Maria Pierina de Micheli . Kanisius-Verlag, Freiburg (i.Ü.) / Konstanz / Munich, 1959.
  • Mariella Scatena, Piersandro Vanzan: Beata Maria Pierina De Micheli . Elledici, Turin, 2010, ISBN 978-88-01-04526-0 .
  • Arnaldo Vedrini: Madre M. Pierina De Micheli e il sacerdote. Riflessioni ascetico-mistiche desunte dalle Lettere e dalla Positio . San Paolo Edizioni, Milan, 2009, ISBN 978-88-215-6665-3 .
  • Paolo Risso: Innamorata di Gesù. Madre Pierina De Micheli (1890-1945) . San Paolo Edizioni, Milan, 2010, ISBN 978-88-215-6548-9 .
  • Nicola Gori: Un canto d'amore al volto santo. Biografia della beata Maria Pierina De Micheli (1890-1945) . Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City, 2012, ISBN 978-88-209-8631-5 .
  • Nicola Gori: Un chant d'amour à la Sainte Face - Biographie de la Bienheureuse Maria Pierina De Micheli (1890–1945) . Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City, 2012, ISBN 978-88-209-8757-2 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Micheli, Pierina de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Micheli, Giuseppina Franceschina Giovanna Maria de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian Roman Catholic nun, Blessed
DATE OF BIRTH September 11, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Milan
DATE OF DEATH July 26, 1945
Place of death Centonara