Saints celebrated on the 5th of May
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. CATERINA CITTADINI, VIRGIN AND FOUNDRESS
Blessed Caterina Cittadini was born on September 28, 1801 in Bergamo. In 1808, being orphaned by the mother and abandoned by the father, Caterina, together with her sister Giuditta who was born on 1803, were accepted in the orphanage of the Conventino of Bergamo.
A GOOD ORPHANAGE
Here, under the guidance of the prior, don Giuseppe Brena, they lived an intense Christian life that contributed to the formation of a strong faith, a profound confidence in the Lord, an active charity, a tender devotion to the Blessed Mother, a great sense of responsibility and diligence for order and fulfillment of one's duties. After having completed the diploma of an elementary teacher, in 1823 Caterina left together with her sister to live with her cousin priests, Giovanni and Antonio Cittadini at Calolzio, a parish in the Diocese of Bergamo.
HER WORK AS A TEACHER
Here the sisters stayed for two years, having a strong spiritual guidance and an active pastoral environment with their cousin priests. Caterina was taken on as a temporary teacher and in 1824 as a permanent teacher in the public school for girls at Somasca, a branch of the municipality of Vercurago near Calolzio. With her sister Giuditta, Caterina matured in her desire to enter in religious Congregation.
A NEW RELIGIOUS FAMILY
Therefore, they asked the guidance of Don Giuseppe Brena, their spiritual director in the Conventino of Bergamo, who in turn indicated to them that the will of God for them consists in staying in Somasca: they themselves would be the cornerstones of a new religious family in the small place where the holiness of St Jerome Emiliani is kept alive.
THEY BOUGHT A PROPERTY
In 1826, together with her sister Giuditta, she permanently transferred to Somasca into a rented house. In the month October of the same year they bought a building, arranged and extended with complete furnishings, which was to become the centre for a boarding school for girls and eventually the centre of the Religious Institute of the Ursuline Sisters.
The task of being teacher placed her in the midst of the life of this small place, Somasca, where Caterina actively participated in the parish life: she was a teacher in Christian Doctrine, she enrolled in different confraternities, participated with her companions and students at the sacred functions, opened her house to receive young girls to animate and form them in an oratory style.
FERVOUR AND COMMITMENT
Caterina fulfilled her task with such fervour and commitment that she elicited much praise from the authorities and unanimous approval of the people.
Her attention towards the needy and the poorest, brought her to great sacrifices of every kind, her works benefitted orphan girls or girls with difficulty in attending public school and those who were coming from further afield.
HER TRIALS
Caterina's whole life was always accompanied by trials. In 1840, just only at the age of 37, she lost Giuditta her sister with whom she had shared everything. In 1841, Don Giuseppe Brena and her cousin priest, Antonio Cittadini passed away.
In 1842 Caterina herself was smitten by a grave illness, and miraculously cured through the intercession of Modonna of Caravaggio and St Jerome Emiliani.
In 1845 she had to leave her teaching job at the public school, to entirely dedicate herself to the boarding school, and to care for the orphans and to be the guide of her companions who lived with her.
SHE WROTE THE RULE
In 1850, Caterina obtained from Pius IX the Decree of erection of a private Oratory where the Blessed Sacrament was kept. In 1854, Caterina had a meeting with the Bishop, Msgr. Pietro Luigi Speranza, who encouraged her to write the rules by herself and promises his help. Caterina writes the rules based on the Constitution of the Ursulines of Milano, but, when presented to the Bishop, they were not accepted.
ANOTHER ATTEMPT
Without being discouraged, she prepared another one, which she forwarded to the Bishop, accompanied by the request in which she asked the approval of the Institute with the title, Orsoline Gerolimiane. Msgr. Speranza approvesld the rules, ad experimentum, promising the definite approval of the new Institute. Caterina waits the day with much trust, but the difficulties, worries, sufferings, had seriously taken their toll on her and her health deteriorated little by little until it brought her to the end of life.
HER HOLY DEATH
Always clear thinking, trustful and in continuous prayer, she exhorted her companions to accept with serenity the will of the Lord, because everything would still be continued. She died on May 5, 1857, after a day of agony, serenely and in a holy manner, and greatly grieved by her daughters, by the boarders and by the people, leaving to everyone her shining example and profound spiritual maturity.
THE INSTITUTE TODAY
A little time after her death, precisely on December 14, 1857, the decree of the canonical erection of the Institute arrived from the Bishop of Bergamo.
The Institute had its pontifical recognition on July 8, 1927.
Today her spiritual daughters fulfil their educative mission also among the Italian immigrants in Switzerland, and in Belgium, in Latin America (Brazil, Bolivia) and in Asia (India, Philippines).
(Source:
https://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20010429_cittadini_en.html)
Comments
Post a Comment