Blessed Teresa Bracco

Blessed Teresa Bracco was a young country girl from northern Italy who, during the Second World War, gave her life defending her chastity. The Church venerates her as a virgin and martyr, and the Roman Martyrology commemorates her on August 29.

She was born in February 1924 in Santa Giulia, a small village in the municipality of Dego in the province of Savona, within the diocese of Acqui. She was the second youngest of the seven children of Giacomo and Angela Bracco, farmers who lived in keeping with their faith. In 1927 her parents buried two of their older sons. Teresa attended the village school and studied the catechism diligently. From childhood she helped her family with the farm work and in the house, and she also tended the flock.

Her piety was simple and faithful. To receive Holy Communion, she rose very early and walked to the morning Mass at a church that was some distance from her home. She prayed the rosary every day, also while she watched over the animals. As a girl of nine she learned the story of Dominic Savio, a pupil of Saint John Bosco, and made his words “Death rather than sin” the rule of her life. She was prudent in her friendships, lived at peace with everyone, and guarded her chastity as a gift of special value.

During the war, violence against women occurred in her area too. Teresa said several times that she was ready to give her life to keep her body, a temple of the Holy Spirit, inviolate. When she learned what had happened to other young women, she said without hesitation: “I would rather die than be violated.”

On the morning of August 28, 1944, Teresa went to Mass and received Holy Communion, and then went with her sisters to work in the fields. That day German soldiers carrying out a round-up appeared in the area. They forced Teresa and several other girls to go with them into the nearby woods. Teresa tried to escape, but in vain. Shortly afterward cries for help and gunshots were heard. She defended herself with all her strength and did not let herself be violated, but she paid for it with her life: according to the Roman Martyrology, she was killed by the blows of soldiers. She was twenty years old. Her body was found in the woods only after the troops had left.

The memory of her martyrdom did not fade. In 1988 the bishop of Acqui opened her cause for beatification, and on July 7, 1997, the decree on her martyrdom was promulgated in the presence of John Paul II. The Pope beatified her on May 24, 1998, in Turin, together with Giovanni Maria Boccardo and Teresa Grillo Michel. In his homily he said that in Teresa Bracco chastity shines out, defended to the point of martyrdom, and he held her up to young people as an example of clear faith, consistency, and courage. Many farmers from the Langhe and all of Piedmont came to the celebration. Today there is a shrine of the blessed in Santa Giulia.