Blessed Maria Giuseppina di Gesù Crocifisso

Giuseppina Catanea, OCD (18 February 1894 - 14 March 1948) was an Italian Catholic professed member of the Discalced Carmelites and who assumed the religious name, Maria Giuseppina of Jesus Crucified. She was born to noble parents from the Marquises Grimaldi and was known for her careful attention to the plight of the poor during her childhood. This intensified after she became a professed Carmelite in 1932 and held positions of leadership despite her failing health that led to her death. She was beatified on 1 June 2008, with Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe presiding over the celebration on the behalf of the pope. Giuseppina Catanea was born in Naples in 1894 to noble parents from the Marquises Grimaldi. Her parents and other relatives often referred to her as "Pinella". In her childhood she demonstrated a keen and tremendous affection for the plight of the poor and she would provide alms to them. In addition she also helped to care for two old women who were alone. She was also noted for her strong devotion to the Eucharist and in the Blessed Mother and would recite rosaries whenever she had opportunities to do so. It was sometime later she felt that Jesus Christ was calling her to the Carmelite life and so she overcame the resistance of her parents and joined a Discalced Carmelite group on 10 March 1918 at Santa Maria ai Ponti Rossi. Catanea was struck with angina attacks in 1912 and sometime after this contracted tuberculosis of the spine that left her unable to walk. However she attributed her miraculous cure on 26 June 1922 to Francis Xavier after two instances in which he appeared to her in a dream and a relic of his was brought to her cell. In 1932 the Santa Maria ai Ponti Rossi group received approval from Pope Pius XI as being a canonical sect of the Discalced Carmelites and thus a legitimate cloister.