Saint of the Day: Bl. Chiara Bosatta

Religious sister (1858-1887)

Her life

+ Dina Bosatta was born in Pianello del Lario, Como, Italy.

+ After being trained by the Canossian Daughters of Charity and entering their community, she left a short time later, realizing she was not called to their way of life.

+ After returning home, she joined the Daughters of Mary, where she served in a hospice for the poor, ministering to the elderly and children.

+ In 1878, she helped Saint Luigi Guanella found a new community of sisters that became known as the Daughters of Saint Mary of Providence. It was just like this time that she took the religious name ‘Chiara’.

+ Blessed Chiara was superior of the community until her death on April 20, 1887. She was beatified in 1991.

For prayer and reflection

“The Lord is my inheritance; he is good to those who seek him.” – Antiphon for the Song of Zacharias from the Common for Religious (Literal of the Hours)

Spiritual bonus

On this day we also commemorate the martyr Blessed Anastazy Jakub Pankiewicz. A Franciscan priest and founder of the Antonian Sisters of Christ the King, he was arrested in 1941 as part of the Nazi oppression of Poland and died in the Dachau concentration camp on May 20, 1942. He was beatified in 1999 along with other Polish martyrs from World War II.

Religious life

The Daughters of St. Mary of Providence: www.dsmpic.org

Prayer

Merciful and provident Father, Blessed Chiara Bosatta, Virgin, was filled with Your Spirit of love and united it to the contemplation of Christ crucified and the service of the needy and the abandoned. Through her intercession, grant that we may love you with full faith and serve you with active charity among our brothers and sisters most in need. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

(from the website of the Daughters of St. Mary of Providence)
Profiles of Saints prepared by Brother Silas Henderson, SDS