Feast 25 December | Name Antonia Verna | |
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Attributes Nun's habitBookCrucifix Patronage Sisters of Charity of the Immaculate Conception of IvreaCatechists Parents Guillermo Verna, Dominga Vacheri | ||
Venerated in Roman Catholic Church | ||
Antonia maria verna
Blessed Antonia Maria Verna (12 June 1773 – 25 December 1838) was an Italian Roman Catholic nun who went on to establish a new religious congregation known as the Sisters of Charity of the Immaculate Conception of Ivrea.
Contents
Pope Benedict XVI approved a miracle attributed to her intercession and delegated Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone to celebrate her beatification in 2011.
Beata madre antonia maria verna
Life
Antonia Maria Verna was born in Turin on 12 June 1773 to Guglielmo Verna and Domenica Maria Vacheri as their second daughter. She was baptized mere hours after her birth. Verna cultivated her deep religious calling as a child and intensified her devotion to Saint Joseph whom she elected as her special patron.
As a teenager she began to feel a call to religious life and began to teach catechism to the children in her village and she attended the Institute of San Giorgio Canavese as a student. At the age of 15 she began to open herself to whatever God would want of her. Her parents wanted her to find a husband but she announced her intention to consecrate herself to God.
In 1806 she established a small group that would soon become her new religious congregation. Their aim was to teach and catechize to children as well as care for those who were ill in their own homes. Their first home opened in 1819 and King Charles Felix granted secular approval to the order on 7 March 1828. The bishop of her diocese granted his approval on 10 June 1828.
Verna died in 1838 on Christmas after a prolonged illness.
Beatification
The beatification process opened in Ivrea on 6 April 1937 which granted her the title Servant of God. The process closed on 20 March 1939 and received ratification in 1992 - decades later. The Positio - documentation on her life of heroic virtue - was submitted to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome in 1999.
Pope Benedict XVI approved her virtuous life on 19 December 2009 and proclaimed her to be Venerable.
The miracle needed for her beatification was investigated for a week in 1966 in Chur and received ratification in 1994. Benedict XVI approved of it in 2011 and delegated Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone to celebrate her beatification on 2 October 2011 in Turin.