Saint Carolina Santocanale

Carolina Santocanale (2 October 1852 - 27 January 1923) was an Italian Roman Catholic nun who assumed the name of "Maria of Jesus" and established the Capuchin Sisters of the Immaculata of Lourdes. Santocanale became well known for her treatment of the ill and the poor to whom she devoted her life and work to and was also a member of the Secular Franciscan Order. The recognition of her life of heroic virtue in 2000 allowed for Pope John Paul II to declare Santocanale to be Venerable while a miracle attributed to her intercession allowed for her beatification in Monreale on 12 June 2016; Cardinal Angelo Amato presided on the behalf of Pope Francis. She was canonized on 15 May 2022 in Rome. Carolina Concetta Angela Santocanale was born on 2 October 1852 in Palermo to nobles from the house of Celsa Raele; her father, Giuseppe, was a lawyer, and her mother was donna Caterina Andriolo Stagno. She was baptized on 3 October and received her First Communion at the age of eight. She attended her primary studies at a school managed by two nuns, helped by other teachers of literature, music and French. In 1861, during the Lent period, Carolina left that school and continued her education at home, guided by private tutors, but she did not get any tiles of study. At the age of nineteen she was called to the bedside of her ailing grandfather who died a short while following their encounter. As a result of the encounter she met Mauro Venuti who soon became Santocanale's spiritual director. She soon became the target of marriage offers but she felt a strong call to religious life in which she was torn between the contemplative cloister and working with the poor and the sick. It was at the age of 21 that she agreed to become the President of the Daughters of Mary in the parish of San Antonio in Palermo. Santocanale contracted a disease during this period and endured sixteen months of severe pain but managed to stave off the disease in 1887.