Today’s saint was unknown to me until now: Blessed Anna Marie Taigi (1769-1837). She was known as a mystic, wife, mother, and penitent. She was a tertiary member of the Trinitarian order.
The beatus’ remains are interred in the Church of Saint Crisogono, Trastevere, Rome, Italy, the neighborhood where she lived. Until about 1920 Taigi’s body was incorrupt but since then a wax face and hands have been in-place to cover for what nature destines us.
Anne was married on 7 January 1789 to Dominico Taigi, a butler to the noble family of Chigi. Together they were married for 48 years, and the parents of seven, two of whom died very young. Marriage was a crown she bore.
Blessed Anna Marie was fortunate to have found holy spiritual directors who directed her spiritual life that ultimately put her on the path to real sanctity. She was a woman of Matthew 25: gave all she could to the poor, visited the sick, and counselled many of the patients at the hospital of San Giacomo of the Incurables; worked hard to evangelize her own family, changing her husband’s demeanor, and they all regularly assembled in a small personal chapel to pray together.
Anne Marie devoted herself to a life of prayer as a lay woman and God richly blessed her with mystical gifts, particularly the gifts of prophecy and reading hearts. One ought not to underestimate the power of asking the Holy Spirit for gifts necessary to do the Father’s will: you may just get what you ask for. It is recorded that she went into ecstacies, and received heavenly and prophetic visions. The gift of counsel allowed her to be a counsellor to cardinals, royalty and to three popes.
As a person in-touch with the need for forgiveness, Blessed Anna Marie is especially important for those who think their past sins cannot be forgiven!
The charismatic gifts, and her lack of concern about worldly matters, Anne was often the topic of gossip and sander, but she was the recipient of public veneration soon after her death, and her Cause for sainthood began in 1863.
The recorded acts that has encouraged the Church to study the life of Anna Marie has now given us Blessed Anna Marie Taigi, a woman who had a simple presence and a powerful effect on many –she was instrumental with many conversions. It was Pope Benedict XV on May 30, 1920, who declared Anna Marie a blessed of the Church. More of her life can be read here.
