Bl. Caterina Cittadini

Caterina Cittadini was born in Bergamo in 1801. When she was seven her mother died and her father abandoned the family, and she and her sister Giuditta grew up in an orphanage.

She qualified as a teacher and from 1824 taught at the girls' school in Somasca, a village near Bergamo. She and Giuditta wanted to join a religious order, but their spiritual director told them to stay where they were. They opened their own school and boarding house for girls, and the group of women who joined them became the Ursuline Sisters of Somasca. Caterina died in 1857 and was beatified in 2001.

Caterina Cittadini was beatified in 2001 by John Paul II.

Beatification allows public veneration, usually in a particular region or religious family. Canonization extends it to the whole Church.