Venerated in Roman Catholic Church Attributes Religious habit Tradition or genre Carmelites | Feast 29 May Influences Thérèse of Lisieux | |
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Born 17 January 1901
Bari, Kingdom of Italy ( 1901-01-17 ) Beatified 18 March 2006, Bari Cathedral, Italy by Cardinal José Saraiva Martins Died 25 December 1927, Bari, Italy | ||
Blessed Teodora Fracasso (17 January 1901 – 25 December 1927) was an Italian Carmelite professed religious. She assumed the religious name of "Elisha of St. Clement". She once had the name of "Agnes" during a stint in the Third Order of Saint Dominic.
Fracasso was born in Bari to Giuseppe Fracasso and Pasqua Cianci. On the night before her First Communion she had a dream of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux who told her: "You will be a nun like me". She entered the Association of Blessed Imelda Lambertini and became a member of the "Angelic Army" of Saint Thomas Aquinas. She became a novice of the Third Order of Saint Dominic and assumed the name "Agnes".
In 1918 her confessor - a Jesuit priest - directed her to the Carmel of St. Joseph in Bari. In 1920 she joined the congregation there while taking the name of "Elisha of St. Clement". She took her vows in December 1921. In 1923 she was put in charge of the embroidery machine at the girl's boarding school but the head mistress of the school removed her from that position. In 1927 she was named as the sacristan.
She came down with the flu in January 1927. Her illness became progressively worse over time. She died at Christmas at the age of 26 of a brain tumor having predicted that she would die on an important feast.
She was beatified on 18 March 2006 in a celebration at the Bari Cathedral that Cardinal José Saraiva Martins presided over on the behalf of Pope Benedict XVI.