Maria Anna Donati

Last updated

Maria Anna Donati
Religious
Born(1848-10-26)26 October 1848
Marradi, Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany
Died18 March 1925(1925-03-18) (aged 76)
Florence, Kingdom of Italy
Venerated in Roman Catholic Church
Beatified 30 March 2008, Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence, Italy by Cardinal José Saraiva Martins
Feast 18 March
Attributes
Patronage
  • Calasanzian Sisters
  • Orphans

Maria Anna Donati (26 October 1848 - 18 March 1925) was an Italian Roman Catholic nun who had established the Calasanzian Sisters in Florence with the aid of Celestino Zini. Upon her profession as a religious she assumed the new name of "Celestina of the Mother of God" in honor of Zini. [1]

Contents

Her beatification was celebrated in Florence on 30 March 2008 - Cardinal José Saraiva Martins celebrated it on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI who had approved the beatification months prior.

Life

Maria Anna Donati was born in Florence on 26 October 1848 to the judge Francesco Donati; a sibling was Gemma. [2] Donati received her First Communion at the age of thirteen in 1861.

In her childhood she spent an extensive period of time with nuns of the Vallumbrosan Order at Vallombrosan and even desired entering the religious life upon realizing that their manner of life was the one in which she felt she was called to; her father prevented her from doing so. [1] However her time with them was inconclusive for she failed to perceive the full depth of her calling and instead had a brief understanding of what she aspired for. [3] It was around this time that she placed herself under the spiritual direction of the Piarist Celestino Zini - the future Archbishop of Siena. In her Zini saw spiritual richness and he encouraged her to listen for God and His call to service. [2] [4]

Her father could not bear being separated from Donati and so forbade her from entering the religious life. This was coupled with the fact that - when she was 33 in 1881 - her mother died and her father become far more attached to her and relied more upon her around the house. [4] At the age of 40 in 1888 she once more expressed her will to become a nun and her reluctant father demanded that she take him as well as an aunt and Donati's sister Gemma with her. Francesco said to her: "I want you to be near me to close my eyes when my last hour strikes". [2] [3]

In 1889 she established - under the guidance of Zini - the Calasanzian Sisters which was made as a female congregation with the sole task of educating children with an emphasis on the poor and on the children of prisoners. [1] Her profession - alongside four companions on 24 June 1889 - saw her assume the new religious name of "Celestina of the Mother of God" in honor of Zini. [4] The congregation would receive the diocesan approval of the Archbishop of Florence Cardinal Agostino Bausa on 21 September 1892 and allowed for the order to open its first school in the archdiocese on 28 December 1889 since it could operate on a diocesan level and that alone. The congregation received its first orphan on 22 June 1891 and thus allowed for all orphans and abandoned children to enter the congregation's doors for aid. The order later received the papal approval of Pope Pius X on 18 December 1911 and had - on 28 February 1920 - its constitutions receive the approval of Pope Benedict XV. Donati was known amongst her peers for her ardent commitment to the teachings of Joseph Calasanz. With Zini's death in 1892 she was forced to assume control of the order herself. [2]

Donati died on 18 March 1925. Her order is also present in Brazil and El Salvador and as of 2005 possessed nineteen houses with 99 religious professed into it. [2] [3]

Beatification

The proceedings for the sanctification process opened in Florence with dual processes that investigated her life and the manner in which she exercised both the cardinal virtues and the theological virtues. Both processes also collated her writings in order to perceive the depth of her religious life and to ensure such writings did not contradict the dogma of the faith. Her writings were cleared of this and were granted a decree of approval on 1 April 1969 and thus were incorporated into the cause.

The formal introduction of the cause was on 12 July 1982 in which the Congregation for the Causes of Saints granted their approval to the cause and bestowed upon Donati the posthumous title of Servant of God - the first stage in the process.

The two processes were both ratified on 5 July 1985 and were sent in large boxes to Rome for further investigation in order for the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to commence the so-called "Roman Phase" and begin their own line of research into the cause and into Donati's life and virtues. The Positio - containing biographical details and attesting to her virtues - was submitted to Rome in 1991.

Donati was declared to be Venerable on 6 April 1998 after Pope John Paul II acknowledged the fact that Donati had lived a model life of the heroic virtue both cardinal and theological.

Pope Benedict XVI approved a miracle attributed to her direct intercession on 1 June 2007 and thus allowed for her beatification to take place. The beatification was celebrated in the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence on 30 March 2008; Cardinal José Saraiva Martins presided over it on the behalf of the pontiff.

The current postulator assigned to the cause is Father Mateusz Pindelski.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Celine Borzecka</span>

Celine Chludzińska Borzęcka was a Roman Catholic professed religious and the co-foundress - along with her daughter Jadwiga Borzęcka - of the Sisters of the Resurrection. Borzęcka desired the religious life but married in obedience to her parents and bore four children; two died as infants. After her husband's death, she chose to follow the spiritual path with her daughter at her side and began a life in community in Rome.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franciszka Siedliska</span> Polish beatified nun

Maria Franciszka Siedliska, also known by her religious name Maria of Jesus the Good Shepherd, was a Polish Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth. In childhood Siedliska was indifferent to her faith but after a local priest had converted her she became aware of a call to the religious life which her parents opposed. However the death of her father in 1870 enabled her to pursue her vocation. In 1873 she decided to found a religious congregation that received the blessing of Pope Pius IX before being established during Advent in 1875. Siedliska expanded her congregation from Rome to her native Poland and elsewhere, including Great Britain, France and the USA where she visited during her extensive travels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maria Merkert</span> German Roman Catholic professed religious

Maria Luise Merkert was a German Roman Catholic professed religious and the co-foundress of the Sisters of Saint Elizabeth. Merkert worked to help those in need including the poor and ill and tended to them with her older sister until her sudden death and the death of her other companions - this left Merkert alone to found and maintain her order as its first Superior General from 1859 until her death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">María Pilar López de Maturana Ortiz de Zárate</span>

Blessed María Pilar López de Maturana Ortiz de Zárate, also known by her religious name Margarita María, was a Spanish Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Mercedarian Missionaries of Bérriz. The religious made several international trips in order to serve in the missions as her order often dabbled in and undertook these trips despite a serious ulcer that transcended into stomach cancer but nevertheless she continued to promote the charism of the missions.

Blessed Bruna Pellesi, known as Maria Rosa of Jesus, was an Italian nun who was a member of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Christ. Pellesi served as an educator in places such as Sassuolo until she contracted tuberculosis and was moved to various sanatoriums for recuperation until the end of her life when she died in her convent.

Giuseppina Nicoli was an Italian Roman Catholic religious sister. Nicoli - aged 20 at the time - became a member of the Vincentians and became a catechist in Sardinia where she was positioned for most of her life despite holding several positions of leadership in Turin and elsewhere for a brief period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maria Pia Mastena</span> Italian religious sister and Blessed

Blessed Maria Pia Mastena - born Teresa Maria - was an Italian religious sister in the Roman Catholic Church. She was the founder of the Religious Sisters of the Holy Face. Mastena fostered a deep devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus and tried to promote that devotion to others in her religious career as a nun. Mastena first desired the contemplative life but was denied this after she entered the convent since it was not a cloister. Instead she dedicated herself to teaching in several Italian cities after having left another convent and another religious order when she deemed contemplative life was not the life she felt God wanted for her. Her labors were dedicated instead to consolidating a new religious congregation which began to grow after World War II until Mastena's sudden death in 1951. Mastena was beatified on 13 November 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maria Teresa of St. Joseph</span> Catholic nun

Blessed Maria Teresa of Saint Joseph, DCJ, was a German religious sister and the founder of the Carmelite Daughters of the Divine Heart of Jesus. Tauscher worked in Cologne and was removed from her position after she converted to Roman Catholicism in 1888 so founded a congregation in the Netherlands upon choosing the Carmelite charism for her life.

Teresa Manganiello was an Italian who became a member of the Secular Franciscan Order. She desired to establish a new religious congregation but died before the idea could come to fruition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Costanza Starace</span> Italian Roman Catholic nun (1845–1921)

Blessed Costanza Starace was an Italian Roman Catholic nun. She was the founder of the religious congregation known as the Compassionist Sisters Servants of Mary. Starace later assumed the new name of "Maria Maddalena of the Passion" upon the occasion of her solemn profession. She became a secular member of the Servite Order after she failed to join a religious order.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francesco Pianzola</span> Italian Roman Catholic priest

Francesco Pianzola was an Italian Roman Catholic priest who established the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculata, Queen of Peace. Pianzola was a preacher who administered to the poor and to children in their own homes; his order dealt with bringing the message of Jesus Christ to the workers and to the poor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maria Scrilli</span> Italian religious sister and Blessed

Maria Scrilli, religious name Maria Teresa of Jesus, was an Italian religious sister who established the Sisters of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leopoldina Naudet</span> Italian religious sister and Blessed

Leopoldina Naudet was an Italian Roman Catholic of both French and Austrian origins. She was a religious sister of the Congregation of Dilette of Jesus and the foundress of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Verona. Naudet served in the court of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor and after his death served his daughter Maria Anna who became an abbess and professed religious alongside Naudet and her sister.

Luigi Boccardo was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and the brother of Giovanni Maria Boccardo. Luigi established the Sisters of Jesus the King as a contemplative branch to his latter brother's Poor Daughters of Saint Cajetan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Maria Adorni Botti</span> Italian religious sister and Blessed

Anna Maria Adorni Botti, born Anna Maria Adorni, was an Italian religious sister of the Handmaids of the Immaculata, a congregation she established in 1857. Botti's vocation was to the religious life and as a child believed she was destined for the missions and later as a Franciscan religious sister. After being widowed she did pastoral work in Parma where she established and ran the congregation of the Handmaids of the Immaculata until her death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clotilde Micheli</span> Beatified Italian Roman Catholic

Clotilde Micheli was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious who established the order known as the Sisters of Angels; she assumed the religious name Maria Serafina of the Sacred Heart upon the order's foundation and her profession into it. She had once before been part of a religious order in which she received the name Maria Annunziata but discarded it when she left their ranks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luigi Monza</span> Italian Roman Catholic priest

Blessed Luigi Monza was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and the founder of the Secular Institute of the Little Apostles of Charity. Monza's pastoral mission was defined with catering to the needs of the poor and the sick and used his new congregation as a means of spreading this mission.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hendrina Stenmanns</span> German Roman Catholic co-founder of the Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit

Hendrina Stenmanns, SSpS was a German Catholic religious sister who co-founded the Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit, which she founded alongside Arnold Janssen and Helena Stollenwerk. She was also a professed member of the Third Order of Saint Francis since 1871. Stenmanns was beatified on 29 June 2008 in the Netherlands. Pope Benedict XVI delegated Cardinal José Saraiva Martins to preside over the celebration on his behalf.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manuela de Jesús Arias Espinosa</span> Mexican Roman Catholic professed religious

Manuela de Jesús Arias Espinosa, also known by her religious name María Inés Teresa of the Blessed Sacrament, was a Mexican religious sister in the Roman Catholic Church and the founder of both the Poor Clare Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament (1945) and the Missionaries of Christ for the Universal Church (1979). She lived during the time of the Cristero War and remained out of the nation during some of it in order to avoid the anti-religious persecution of the times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">María del Carmen González-Ramos García-Prieto de Muñoz</span> Spanish Roman Catholic professed religious

María del Carmen González-Ramos García-Prieto de Muñoz, also known by her religious name María del Carmen of the Child Jesus, was a Spanish Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Hearts. She married in mid-1857 – against her parents' advice – to a brash and dissolute husband and secured his repentance not too long before his death.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Blessed Celestine of the Mother of God". Saints SQPN. 9 April 2015. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Biographies of New Blesseds - 2008". EWTN. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 "Blessed Celestina Donati". Santi e Beati. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 "Blessed Celestina Donati, March 18". The Black Cordelias. 18 March 2009. Retrieved 7 March 2016.