Blessed Eugenia Ravasco

Eugenia Maria Ravasco (4 January 1845 - 30 December 1900) was an Italian Roman Catholic nun of the Ravasco Institute that she herself had established - the order was also known as the Daughters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and was founded in the Archdiocese of Genoa where she spent most of her life. Ravasco devoted her entire life to the service of God and to aiding the poor and the sick across parishes in Genoa and in various hospitals. She travelled across the Italian state as well as in Switzerland to spread the message of her order and also acted as a catechist to the poor. She was also on close terms with various priests and the Genoa archbishop Salvatore Magnasco. She was beatified on 27 April 2003. Eugenia Maria Ravasco was born in Milan in 1845 as the third of six children to banker Francesco Matteo Ravasco (d. March 1855) and Carolina Mozzoni Frosconi (d. 1848). The eldest child was Ambrose while the last was Elisa (d. 1868). Her mother died in 1848 and her father relocated to Genoa with two of his male children in order to find work. Because of this she was raised in Milan under the care of her pious aunt Marietta Anselmi. The siblings in Milan were reunited with their father and siblings in Genoa in 1852 but was short lived when their father died in March 1855. Due to this the siblings moved in with Luigi and Elisa Ravasco and their ten children. On 21 June 1855 she made her First Communion and her Confirmation. It was around this time anti-clerical sentiment spread across the Italian peninsula and her brother Ambrose joined their forces - this alarmed their uncle Luigi. Ravasco was forced to assume the duties of head of the household after her uncle Luigi died in December 1862. Ravasco felt a strong call to the religious life on 31 May 1863 and felt the strong call to submit to a vocation that was dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.