Blessed Cecilia Eusepi

Cecilia Eusepi (17 February 1910 – 1 October 1928) was an Italian Roman Catholic and a professed member from the Secular Servites. Since an early age she had desired to become a nun, but did not manage to do due to a severe case of tuberculosis which confined her to her bed. In 1926 she met the young priest Gabriel Roschini who had recently arrived at Nepi, south or Rome, where Eusepi lived with her family. Roschini advised her to write a journal of her thoughts and prayers. She titled her journal Storia di un Pagliaccio ("Story of a Clown"), because she considered herself to be a "little clown" and "a half-stupid clown good for nothing"; she wrote that it must be her extreme weakness that appealed to God. Eusepi died in 1928 of tuberculosis at age 18. In 1931 Roschini published a book titled "The Story of a Lilly" about her life. The title reflected the fact that Eusepi had desired to be like a lily in imitation of the life of the Virgin Mary. In 1946 Eusepi's writings were reviewed by the Vatican authorities and found to be in conformance to Catholic teachings. Eusepi's beatification was celebrated in Nepi on 17, June 2012 and her case was mentioned by Pope Benedict XVI during his Angelus talk at the Vatican that day. Cecilia Eusepi was born in Monte Romano on 17 February 1910. She was the last of eleven children to Paulina Mannucci; her brother Vincenzo was called for service during World War I. Eusepi received her baptism on 26 February from the archpriest Ugo Fulignoli. Her father died in April 1910 after ill health and on his deathbed entrusted his widow and children to his brother-in-law Filippo Mannucci. On 6 January 1915 she was taken to a small farm called "La Massa" just off from Nepi with her mother and siblings in the care of her maternal uncle. She received her Confirmation on 27 May 1917 from Bishop Luigi Olivares and her First Communion on 2 October 1917.