Maria Crocifissa Di Rosa (1813–55) was the founder of the Handmaids of Charity (also called the Servants of Charity) in Brescia, Italy, in 1839.  She was canonized by Pope Pius XII.

She was born as Paolina Francesca di Rosa , into a wealthy family, in the city of Brescia, Italy on November 6, 1813.   First educated in a convent by the Visitation Sisters, she left school after the death of her mother and by age seventeen she was running her father’s household and caring for the girls in her father’s mill and estate.

During the cholera epidemic of 1836 she worked in the hospital in Brescia and became well known as she directed a home for girls and began another residence for deaf and mute young ladies.  In 1840, at age thirty, she became superior of a community that evolved into her congregation, taking the name, Maria Crocifissa di Rosa. The chief apostolate of the Handmaids of Charity, was the care of the poor, the sick and the suffering. The women of the Servants of Charity ministered to the wounded on the battlefields of northern Italy and in hospitals.

Her spirituality was grounded in the imitation of Christ’s suffering on the Cross. This was the basis of her teaching and contemplation. In her love of the crucified Christ, she translated her dedication to him towards the suffering members of his Mystical Body.

Papal approval was granted in 1850. Mary died at Brescia on December 15, 1855.   She was beatified and canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1954.

(Copied from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Crocifissa_di_Rosa)

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Pierina was born in Montichiari on 3rd August 1911, first of nine sons, in a humble family of farmers. She grew devoted to family, work and prayer, bearing with patience the poverty and the weak health.  Her father’s death intensified her sufferings and forced her to enter the orphanage in  Montichiari, run by the Sisters of the Handmaids of Charity.  Even if soon she matured a vocational thought, her desire of entering the religious institute founded by Crocifissa di Rosa never came true, due to the continuous delays caused by sudden illnesses and severe misunderstandings.

Hospital in  Montichiari

In the night between 23rd and 24th November 1946 – when her suffering reached her culmination due to a serious illness- Pierina stated that  Maria Crocifissa di Rosa appeared to her. The holy foundress of the  Sisters of the Handmaids of Charity apparently invited Pierina to look at a point in the room: “Then I saw a wonderful Lady, as if she was transparent, with a violet dress and a white veil going from the head to the feet; she was holding the arms wide open; Her breast was pierced with three swords near Her hearth.”

Saint  Crocifissa di Rosa apparently explained that the Lady would be the Virgin Mary who came to ask Pierina “prayers, sacrifices and sufferings” to repair the sins of  three categories of souls consecrated to God:  the religious souls who betray their vocation; the religious souls in  mortal sin; the souls of priests who betrayed becoming unworthy of their sacred ministry. Afterwards, the Saint recommended the sanctification of the priests through prayer, sacrifice and penitence of the faithful.

On 13th July 1947 Pierina asserted that the Virgin Mary appeared to her again, this time dressed in white, with three roses on Her breast instead of the three swords, that this time were at Her feet: the white rose would have indicated the spirit of prayer, the red one the spirit of sacrifice and the yellow one, with golden reflections, the spirit of penitence. In that circumstance Pierina informed that the Virgin Mary asked and wished the 13th of each month to be celebrated as a day of Marian prayer with a special solemnity.

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