BL. MARIA PIERINA DE MICHELI - 26 JULY

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JULY

Saints celebrated on the 26th of July

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.

BL. MARIA PIERINA DE MICHELI, VIRGIN

Giuseppina de Micheli was born in Milan on September 11, 1890. She had been aware from an early age of the Holy Face of Jesus devotion, which had been started almost a century earlier by a French Carmelite nun, Sister Marie of St Peter, of Tours, France. 

Giuseppina joined the Congregation of the Daughters of the Immaculate Conception in October 1913, and took the name Sister Maria Pierina on May 16, 1914, when she made her vows. 

SHE BEGAN TO SPREAD THE DEVOTION

She was then sent to the motherhouse in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she remained until 1921. While there, her attachment to the Holy Face devotion grew stronger. After her return to Milan she was eventually elected as the Mother Superior of her house and began to spread the devotion.

On the first Friday in Lent 1936 she reported a vision of Christ in which Jesus appeared to her and said: “I will that My Face, which reflects the intimate pains of My Spirit, the suffering and the love of My Heart, be more honoured. He who meditates upon Me, consoles Me”.

SHE MANAGED TO OBTAIN PERMISSION

Further reported visions of Jesus and Mary urged Sister Maria Pierina to make a medal with the Holy Face of Jesus. After some effort, she managed to obtain permission to reproduce the photograph of the Shroud of Turin and authorisation from the Curia in Milan to proceed with the medal in 1940. This became known as the Holy Face Medal.

THE MEDAL

On one side the medal bears a replica of the Holy Shroud of Turin and an inscription based on Psalm 66:2: "Illumina, Domine, vultum tuum super nos", i.e. "May, O Lord, the light of Thy countenance shine upon us". On the other side of the medal, there is an image of a radiant Sacred Host, the monogram of the Holy Name ("IHS"), and the inscription "Mane nobiscum, Domine" i.e. "Stay with us, O Lord".

THE FEAST OF THE HOLY FACE OF JESUS

The first medal of the Holy Face was offered to Pope Pius XII who approved the devotion and the medal. In 1958, Pope Pius XII declared the Feast of the Holy Face of Jesus as Shrove Tuesday (the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday) for all the faithful.

Sister Maria Pierina died on July 26, 1945 in Milan. Her remains are at the Holy Spirit Institute in Rome. 

(Information from Wikipedia - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Pierina

📷 1. Bl. Maria Pierina de Micheli, 2. The Holy Face Medal)