ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN FEBRUARY
Saints celebrated on the 7th of February
BLESSED ANNA MARIA ADORNI BOTTI
In October 2010, Mother Anna Maria Adorni Botti was beatified. Blessed Mother Anna was born in Fivizzano in Northern Italy on 19th June 1805. Her Father died when she was only 15 years old, after which she and her mother moved to Parma.
Blessed Mother Anna wanted to be a Capuchin nun but acceded to her mother’s will and in 1826 she married Antonio Botti, and together they had six children.
Blessed Mother Anna’s mother then died three months after the wedding. Blessed Mother Anna’s husband died at the age of 39, after she had nursed him for many months, leaving her to bring up four children, the other two having died very young. Three of these four remaining children also died young, with one living to the age of 26. Blessed Mother Anna thought that children were a gift and she formed them so that they would go to heaven.
Despite all these sorrows Blessed Mother Anna never lost hope.
She felt a call to become a consecrated widow and to dedicate the rest of her life to works of charity, especially with prisoners.
Several women expressed a wish to follow her example and this is how the union of women visitors of prisons, under the protection of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary (an association of women volunteers who specialised in prison ministry) came about. These women undertook this ministry as no one else in the area seemed interested in doing it.
In 1857, together with eight companions, Blessed Mother Anna founded the Congregation of Handmaidens of Blessed Mary Immaculate of Parma, later taking vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.
As well as helping prisoners Blessed Mother Anna also served the poor, homeless and orphans and offered protection to women in danger. The Bishop of Parma confirmed the statutes of this community in 1893. Nine days after the statutes were confirmed Blessed Mother Anna died, having just been clothed in a religious habit.
Blessed Mother Anna once said, even after the death of her parents, husband and six children, that ‘if a happy person has existed in life, it is I’. At her Mass of beatification it was said that Blessed Mother Anna is a model of a ‘wife, mother and founder. It’s very original that one person can be a model for several states of life’.
(From Spiritual Thought from Father Chris)
PRAYER:
Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of the blessed Anna Maria may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Sources of these articles (in the original German): books.google.co.uk, de-academic.com, zeno.org, openlibrary.org
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