Bl. Maria Pierina De Micheli

Giuseppina De Micheli was born in Milan in 1890. She joined the Daughters of the Immaculate Conception of Buenos Aires, who ran the girls' youth centre in her parish, and took the name Maria Pierina. She held several leadership posts in the congregation, including superior of its house in Rome.

She is best known for spreading devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus, meaning prayer focused on the suffering face of Christ, and for the Holy Face medal. She died of typhus in 1945, near Novara, and was beatified in 2010.

Legend and tradition. She reported that the Virgin Mary showed her the design of the Holy Face medal in a vision. The Church allows the devotion; it does not require belief in private revelations.

Maria Pierina De Micheli was beatified in 2010.

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