Saint Maria Domenica Mazzarello

Saint Maria Domenica Mazzarello was an Italian religious who, together with Saint John Bosco, founded the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians to educate poor girls. She was born on May 9, 1837, in Mornese in Piedmont and died on May 14, 1881, in Nizza Monferrato. Her memorial falls on May 14.

She came from a devout peasant family in the diocese of Acqui. Her parents were Giuseppe Mazzarello and Maria Maddalena Calcagno; she was the eldest of their seven children and was baptized on the day of her birth. She helped her mother at home and her father in the family vineyards, and she received hardly any schooling. At about the age of seventeen she joined the pious association of the Daughters of Mary Immaculate.

In 1860 a typhus epidemic struck Mornese. At the parish priest’s request Maria Domenica nursed sick relatives and caught the disease herself. The illness left her so weak that she could no longer work in the fields. So, together with her friend Petronilla, she opened a small sewing workshop for the village girls and taught them not only to sew but also to pray and to live by faith. The decree on her heroic virtues recalls that she wanted every stitch of her needle to be an act of love for God.

In October 1864 she met Don Bosco for the first time and at once sensed that he was a saint. From 1865 she lived with a few companions in a small house near the parish church; Father Domenico Pestarino had furnished it for them. Don Bosco, encouraged by Pope Pius IX, intended to found an institute for girls similar to the Salesians, and he chose this very community as its beginning. On August 5, 1872, in Mornese, in the presence of the bishop of Acqui, the first sisters received the habit and Maria Domenica made her religious vows. Don Bosco named the new religious family the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians.

At first she led the community as vicar, and on June 15, 1874, the sisters unanimously elected her superior general; she accepted the office only out of obedience. Although she was superior and at times ill, she did not exempt herself from the common duties. She cared for the joy of the sisters and often asked each of them, “Sei allegra?” (“Are you joyful?”). The Institute grew quickly, and sisters left for the missions in Uruguay, Argentina, and Patagonia. The motherhouse was moved to Nizza Monferrato.

There Maria Domenica fell seriously ill. She received the news of her approaching death serenely and bore her pain with patience. She died on May 14, 1881, at the age of 44, calling on the names of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. She left about two hundred sisters in some twenty-six houses.

Pius XI recognized her heroic virtues in 1936 and declared her blessed on November 20, 1938. Pius XII canonized her on June 24, 1951, in Saint Peter’s Basilica, together with Saint Emily de Vialar, and set her memorial on May 14, the anniversary of her death.