Blessed Luigi Beltrame Quattrocchi

Luigi Beltrame Quattrocchi (12 January 1880 – 9 November 1951) and Maria Corsini-Beltrame Quattrocchi (24 June 1884 – 26 August 1965) were two married Italian Catholic laypeople who became the first couple to be beatified together in 2001. According to Pope John Paul II, they lived "an ordinary life in an extraordinary way". They are commemorated on 25 November—their wedding anniversary. Luigi was born in Catania in 1880 to Carlo and Francesca Beltrame Vita. The second surname was added when Luigi was raised and then adopted by his childless aunt and uncle, Stefania and Luigi Quattrocchi, but maintained a close relationship with his birth parents. He attended school at Ancona and then moved to Rome, where he lived in the area of Esquiline. He studied jurisprudence at Sapienza University of Rome and graduated in 1902 with a degree in law. After his graduation, Quattrocchi took a legal position with the Intendacy of Finances and later went on to hold a number of posts on the boards of a variety of banks, including the Bank of Italy. Maria Luisa Corsini was born in Florence in 1884, a member of the noble Corsini family. Her father, Angeiolo Corsini, was a Royal Army captain of grenadiers. Her mother was Julia Salvi. Because of her father's frequent military transfers, the family lived in Pistoia, Arezzo and Rome. Corsini had an excellent education from a young age. Parish priests taught her literature classes, which gave her the background to write essays and books on education, religion, the family and the spiritual upbringing of children. She followed a strict religious life, which included religious counseling, attending mass, receiving daily Communion, and reciting prayers. Although she had been enrolled at a parish school in Rome run by nuns, when one of the nuns talked ill of the King, Corsini transferred to a state-run school. After her graduation, she became a professor of education and lecturer.