Blessed Enrichetta Alfieri

Enrichetta Alfieri (23 February 1891 – 23 November 1951), born Maria Angela Domenica Alfieri, was an Italian Roman Catholic religious sister and a member of the Sisters of Divine Charity. Alfieri was called also "the mother of San Vittore" and "the angel of San Vittore" due to her extensive work in the San Vittore prison in Milan. She worked there during World War II when the Nazis arrested her on the charge of espionage. The intervention of the Cardinal Archbishop of Milan Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster secured her release. Pope Benedict XVI approved her beatification and delegated Cardinal Angelo Amato to preside over the beatification celebration at Milan Cathedral on 26 June 2011. Maria Angela Domenica Alfieri was born in 1891 in Borgo Vercelli to Giovanni Alfieri and Rosa Compagnone. She was the eldest and her two sisters were Angela and Adele while her brother and final sibling was Carlo. Her parents educated her as a child before she attended school. She excelled in art and in needlework. She also tended to the fields at home and aided her mother with housework. From her childhood it was clear to her that she was to enter the religious life and tried to do so in her adolescence much to the chagrin of her parents who asked her to remain at home until she turned 20. She became a postulant of Saint Jeanne-Antide Thouret's congregation on 20 December 1911. She received a diploma in education on 12 July 1917. Alfieri worked as a kindergarten teacher in Vercelli but was forced to relinquish her position in 1917 after it was found that she had diagnosed Pott's disease. Alfieri was cured – in what was deemed a miracle – on 25 February 1923 after having gone on a pilgrimage to Lourdes in France. In April 1920 she had gone to Milan for tests and treatment – without results – and was later found to have degenerating spondylitis. Her condition deteriorated in Vercelli and she was often immobilized with great pain.