Blessed Maddalena Caterina Morano

Maddalena Caterina Morano (15 November 1847 - 26 March 1908) was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious who was a member of the Salesian Sisters. Morano served as an educator for her entire life believing it to be her vocation; she served as a catechist in addition to being an educator. Morano was beatified in Catania on 5 November 1994 during the occasion of the visit of Pope John Paul II to two Sicilian cities. Maddalena Caterina Morano was born on 15 November 1847 as the sixth of eight children to Francesco Morano. Her father and older sister both died in 1855 after the death of five brothers. The death of her father and six of her siblings meant that Morano became the sole breadwinner of the household. Her priest uncle guided her studies while she acted as the sole provider for the household. At the age of fourteen, the pastor of Buttigliera d'Asti opened an educational center for children and she was hired as a teacher. In 1866 she graduated as a teacher and wanted to enter religious life but was denied this due to the dependence her surviving siblings and mother had on her. Despite this she worked for just over a decade until 1878 as a teacher in Montaldo; she also taught catechism in her local parish. Morano confessed to her mother in 1877 that she wanted to become a nun but her mother could not support herself if Morano left her. At the age of 30, the Vincentians rejected her desire to become a cloistered nun. Morano had enough to insure her mother's future in 1878 and so made it a focus of her aspirations to enter the religious life. John Bosco accepted her in joining the Salesians and she made her solemn profession on 4 September 1879; the two met as Morano was walking to Buttigliera d'Asti. Bosco dissuaded her from being a cloistered nun and asked Giovanni Cagliero to invite her into Bosco's order. She made her perpetual vows in 1880.