Bl. Clotilde Micheli

Clotilde Micheli was born in 1849 in Imer, in Trentino, northern Italy. From her youth she felt called to found a religious community devoted to the Trinity, to Mary and to the angels.

It took her many years. She faced doubt and opposition, made a pilgrimage on foot towards Rome, and worked for a time as a nurse in Germany. In 1891 in Caserta she founded the Sisters of the Angels, taking the name Maria Serafina of the Sacred Heart. They worked with poor children and young people. She died in 1911 and was beatified in 2011.

Legend and tradition. Accounts of her life describe visions, first to her sister and then to her, about her future vocation.

Her biographer notes that even a clear sense of calling did not spare her years of searching, mistakes and false starts before the community took shape.

Clotilde Micheli was beatified in 2011.

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