Tag: Maria Luisa Prosperi

Blessed Maria Luisa Prosperi

Maria Luisa ProsperiToday, the Church beatified the Venerable Servant of God Maria Luisa (nee Gertrude Prosperi; 1799-1847), a former Abbess of the Benedictine Abbey in Trevi in what is now known as the Diocese of Spoleto-Norcia (Italy). Her name is now added to the long list of Benedictine saints and blesseds.

Cardinal Angelo Amato, SDB, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints pronounced the papal decree of beatification. His homily may be read in Italian here.

What can we learn from Maria Luisa Prosperi?

Our new blessed was devoted to the Most Blessed Sacrament, the contemplation of the cross with a profound and exemplary love for the infinite mercy of God and the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is Benedict XVI who tells us to recognize in Abbess Maria Luisa a singular love for the Lord’s Passion. Maria Luisa was known as a “woman in love with God.”

Blessed Maria Luisa’s liturgical memorial will be 12 September.

Blessed Maria Luisa was born on 15 August 1779 and died on 12 September 1847. She became a Benedictine nun of the Monastery of Saint Lucy in 1820 in a monastery founded in 1844.

Miracles, heroic virtue, new blesseds, new saints, 2 Americans

Sixty-seven people who are being proposed for sainthood had their causes advanced today when Angelo Cardinal Amato, SDB, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints presented the respective cases to His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI.

Several were recognized as martyrs for the Faith; their witness to Christ resulted in their being killed in hatred of the faith (odium fidei). 7 who were identified as living a life of heroic virtue were women who founded religious congregations of sisters.

Others were diocesan and religious priests, nuns, sisters and lay people. The martyrs came from Spain having died in the mid-1930s. Of note to me was…

Maria Luisa Gertrude Prosperi~the recognition of the miracle attributed to the intercession of the Servant of God Maria Luisa (nee Gertrude Prosperi; 1799-1847; image) an Abbess of the Benedictine Abbey in Trevi;

~the recognition of the miracle attributed to the intercession of the Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha (1654-1672), an American lay woman and first Native American;

~the recognition of the miracle attributed to the intercession of the Blessed Marianne Cope (nee Barbara; 1838-1918), a Franciscan sister who worked with Saint Damian of Molokai.

The Filipino community gets its second saint with the acceptance of the miracle attributed to Blessed Pedro Calungsod (1654-1672), a lay catechist.