Saint Eurosia Fabris

Eurosia Fabris, TOSF, also known as "Mamma Rosa", (27 September 1866 – 8 January 1932), was an Italian member of the Third Order of Saint Francis in the Roman Catholic Church. She was beatified in 2005. She is regarded as a model of holiness in the daily life of a Catholic family. Besides her own nine children, she had two adopted ones. Eurosia Fabris was born to farmers Luigi and Maria Fabris on 27 September 1866, in Quinto Vicentino, a small, agricultural area near the Italian town of Vicenza. In 1870, at the age of four, she and her family moved to the nearby village of Marola, also in the Province of Vicenza, where she lived for the rest of her life. She was able to attend school for only two years, between 1872 and 1874, because she needed to help her parents with farm work and domestic chores. However, she was still able to learn enough to read several religious texts in her youth, most notably the Bible, the Catechism, about the history of the Roman Catholic Church, the Philothea of Francis de Sales, and the Eternal Maxims of Alphonsus Liguori. When Fabris was twelve years old, she received her first Holy Communion, and then from then on as often as permitted. Fabris joined the "Association of the Daughters of Mary" in the parish church of Marola and was a devoted member. She was known as an agent of good will in her family, among her friends, and in her parish, where she taught catechism to the children and sewing to the girls who came to her home. The eighteen-year-old Fabris, commonly known as "Rosina", received several marriage proposals, as she was observed to be a dedicated, pious and hardworking woman. Fabris declined, however, as she did not at that time consider herself called to marriage. In 1885, a young married woman near her home died, leaving three young daughters. One of them died shortly after her mother. The other two, Chiara Angela and Italia, were only 20 months old and 2 months old, respectively.