ST FRANCESCA RUBATTO, VIRGIN - 6 AUGUST

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST

Saints celebrated on the 6th of August 

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

ST FRANCESCA RUBATTO, VIRGIN

Saint Francesca Rubatto was born in 1844 at Carmagnola, Turin, Italy. St Francesca lost her father at the age of four and in her teens she received an offer of marriage from a wealthy man. However, St Francesca turned the offer of marriage down and decided to make a vow of virginity instead. Her mother died when St Francesca was 19 years old. St Francesca decided to visit the various parishes in the city of Turin, teaching catechism to the children, visiting the sick in hospital and helped to care for the poor and neglected.

SHE HELPED CARE FOR THE POOR AND NEGLECTED

St Francesca went to Loano, a seaside resort, to pray about what her next step in life should be. One morning, after Mass, she heard an injured labourer moaning and she discovered that a stone had fallen from a building that was being repaired and that it had hit him on the head. St Francesca cleaned his head wound and gave him some money to live on so that he could take a few days off work to recover his health.

SHE WAS CHOSEN TO BE THE SUPERIOR

The building being repaired was to house a community of religious women and when they heard of this incident they took it as a sign from God that St Francesca should join them and guide them in the spiritual life. This she did and enthusiastically she embraced their Franciscan life of poverty. After exhibiting great organisational skills St Francesca was chosen to be the superior of the community and this led to the sisters expanding their good work to other cities in Italy, and then to Uruguay and Argentina.

GREAT ORGANISATIONAL SKILLS

In 1892 a request came to St Francesca to start a mission in the Brazilian Rainforest. More experienced religious communities had turned this request down, but St Francesca went to Brazil with some of her sisters and she lived in the Rainforest for six months. Once the mission was started St Francesca travelled back to Italy. 

Sadly, in 1901 the news came to St Francesca that the whole community in the Rainforest had been slaughtered, martyred for their Catholic Faith. Undiscouraged by this tragedy, the work of the sisters continued in South Argentina and Italy, with St Francesca crossing the Atlantic Ocean seven times. St Francesca died suddenly of cancer at Montevideo, Uruguay, on August 6, 1904 at the age of 59. St Francesca was beatified in 1993 by Pope Saint John Paul II.

"SERVE THE LORD JOYFULLY"

St Francesca advised her sisters, ‘Serve the Lord joyfully, lovingly fulfil the duties entrusted to you, work tirelessly because you know how precious your work is in the sight of the Lord. And having worked hard for the glory of God whom you love so deeply, call yourself a useless servant of the Lord and be convinced of being one, because you know that you are not capable of anything without his divine help.’ This is good advised for us too; that we should serve the Lord joyfully and not to be proud and think we can do things on our own, but understand that we need to rely on God’s help.

(From: Spiritual Thought from Fr Chris/2015 - The title "Blessed" in the original article has been changed to "Saint". Sr Francesca was canonised on May 15, 2022.)