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| St. Rosa Venerini |
| 07 May 2023 |
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Rosa Venerini (9 February 1656 – 7 May 1728) was a pioneer in the education of women and girls in 17th-century Italy and the foundress of the Religious Teachers Venerini (Italian: Maestre Pie Venerini), a Roman Catholic religious institute of women, often simply called the Venerini Sisters. She was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on 15 October 2006.Venerini was born in 1656 in Viterbo, Italy, then a part of the Papal States. Her father, Goffredo, originally from Castelleone di Suasa, Ancona, after having completed his medical studies at Rome, moved to Viterbo where he practiced at the major hospital of the city. He became noted for his work. From his marriage to Marzia Zampichetti, of an ancient family of the city, four children were born: Domenico, Maria Maddalena, Rosa and Orazio.
According to her first biographer, Girolamo Andreucci, Venerini made a vow to consecrate her life to God at the age of seven. At age twenty, though, Rosa had questions about her own future and chose to accept an offer of marriage; her fiancé, however, died shortly after this.
In the autumn of that year, on the advice of her father, Venerini entered the Dominican Monastery of St. Catherine, where her aunt was a member of the monastery. She remained in the monastery for only a few months, however, because the sudden death of her father forced her to return to care for her mother. Her brother, Domenico, then died at 27. A few months later, worn out by grief, her mother also died. In the meantime, Rose's sister Maria Maddalena married. There remained at home only Orazio and Rosa, by now 24 years old. Rosa began to gather girls and women of the area in her own home to recite the rosary.
After Venerini's first contacts with the Dominican friars at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Oak Tree, near Viterbo, she chose to follow the spirituality of Ignatius of Loyola under the direction of the Jesuits, especially Ignatius Martinelli, who became her spiritual director. Under his guidance, she saw the need to dedicate herself to the instruction and Christian formation of young
On 30 August 1685, with the approval of the Bishop of Viterbo, Cardinal Giulio Cesare Sacchetti, and the collaboration of two friends, Gerolama Coluzzelli and Porzia Bacci, Rosa left her father's home to begin her first school. The first objective of this foundress was to give poor girls a complete Christian formation and to prepare them for life in society. Without great pretense, Rose opened the first public school for girls in Italy. |
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