Saint Maria Cristina Brando

Maria Cristina of the Immaculate Conception Brando (1 May 1856 – 20 January 1906), born Adelaida Brando, was an Italian saint, nun and the founder of the Congregation of the Sisters, Expiatory Victims of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, an international teaching institute. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 27 April 2003, and canonized by Pope Francis on 17 May 2015. Adelaida Brando was born on 1 May 1856 in Naples, Italy, the youngest of four sisters, to Christian and wealthy parents Giovanni Giuseppe and Maria Concetta Marrazzo, who died several days after Brando's birth. Brando received a "fruiful and sound" religious education and showed inclinations towards the religious life, holiness, prayer, and celibacy early in her life. As a child, she would say, "I must be a saint, I want to be a saint". When she was about 12 years old, she professed a vow of perpetual chastity before an image of the Christ child. She tried to enter the convent of the Sacramentine nuns in Naples, but her father prevented her. He gave his permission for her to join the Poor Clare nuns at their convent in Fiorentine, where her oldest sister was a nun, but Brando became ill and had to return to her family for medical care. After she recovered, she was able to enter the Sacramentine's convent; in 1876, she became a nun, taking on the name Maria Cristina of the Immaculate Conception. She became ill again and had to return home. In 1878, Brando founded the Congregation of the Sisters, Expiatory Victims of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament while renting a room with the Teresiane Sisters of Torre del Greco. The new congregation grew quickly, despite economic limitations and Brando's health difficulties. The community settled in Casoria, three miles northeast of Naples, grew with new houses and members, and "demonstrated great devotion to the Eucharist and diligent care for the education of young boys and girls".