Pauline of the Agonizing Heart of Jesus

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Roman Catholic Church
(Little Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, Brazil)
BeatifiedOctober 18, 1991, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil, by Pope John Paul II
CanonizedMay 19, 2002, Vatican City, by Pope John Paul II
Major shrineSanctuary of St. Pauline, Nova Trento, Santa Catarina, Brazil.
FeastJuly 9

Pauline of the Agonizing Heart of Jesus, C.I.I.C. (December 16, 1865 – July 9, 1942), was an immigrant from Austria-Hungary to Brazil, who became the foundress of the Congregation of the Little Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, religious sisters who serve the poor.

She was the first

canonized on May 19, 2002, by Pope John Paul II. Pauline suffered from diabetes for much of her life and is considered an "unofficial" patron saint of diabetics.[1]

Life

Early life

She was born Amabile Lucia Visintainer on December 16, 1865, the second daughter of Antonio Napoleone Visintainer and Anna Pianezzer

Austro-Hungary, now in Italy.[3] Her ancestors were Germanic, who had settled in the region of Vigolo Vattaro as early as 1491, their surname being originally spelled Wiesenteiner.[4]

Like many others in the area, the Visintainer family was very poor but practising Catholics.[3] In September 1875, the family, along with a hundred other people of the town, about a fifth of its population, emigrated to the State of Santa Catarina in Brazil, where they founded the village of Vigolo, now part of Nova Trento.[2] She was known even at a youthful age for her piety and charity. From an early age she spoke of giving her life to God. She had very little intellectual education, but great love for the Catholic faith and for the suffering and poor.[5] After receiving her First Communion at about age 12, she began to participate in the life of the local parish, teaching catechism to children, visiting the sick and cleaning the local chapel.[3]

Religious life

On 12 July 1890, Visintainer and her friend, Virginia Rosa Nicolodi, under the

Jesuit priest, Luigi Rossi, committed their lives to religious service, under dedication to the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady.[2] They began by caring for a woman suffering from terminal cancer, in a small house which was donated to the small community and the young girls began a schedule of religious living. After the woman's death the following year, they were joined by a third friend, Teresa Anna Maule.[6]

In 1895, Rossi and Visintainer, seeing the need for a more formal and secure organization of the young women coming to them, decided to establish a

Superior General for life. She moved from Nova Trento to Ipiranga, São Paulo, where she opened a convent of the congregation in order to take care of orphans, the children of former slaves – slavery having been ended by the Empire of Brazil only in 1888, and aged slaves who had been left to die because they could no longer work.[3]

In 1909 Pauline was removed from her position as Superior General by Duarte Leopoldo e Silva,

Decree of Praise was granted by Pope Pius XI on 19 May 1933 to the Congregation of the Little Sisters, establishing it as one of pontifical right.[3]

Pauline's health began a long, slow decline in 1938, as she fought a losing battle with diabetes.[2] In two operations, first her middle finger and then her right arm were amputated. She spent the last months of her life totally blind. On 9 July 1942 she died with the last words, "God's will be done".[3]

Veneration

Statue of Saint Pauline in Nova Trento, Santa Catarina, Brazil.

Pauline was

fingerbones of her remaining hand. One was given to Pope John Paul, the second to the convent where she had lived and is currently housed in the Shrine of St. Paulina in Nova Trento, and the other to her relations, Albert Visintainer and his family of Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, United States. This can be seen at the St. Pauline Visintainer Center in Kulpmont, Pennsylvania.[5]

Pope John Paul II later

Saint Peter's Square,[2] where she became the first Brazilian female saint. Hundreds of Brazilians, including then-President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, attended the event.[7]

Her feast day is July 9.[8]

See also

References

  1. ^ Peterson, Larry. "Brazil’s first canonized female saint was a lifelong diabetic", Aleteia, May 1, 2020
  2. ^ a b c d e f g (en) Saint Paulina do Coração Agonizante de Jesus at the Catholic Forum.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Paulina do Coração Agonizante de Jesus". Vatican News Service.
  4. ^ (en) Farace, Love's Harvest, p. 108
  5. ^ a b "Saint Pauline Foundation". 2008-06-25. Archived from the original on 2008-06-25. Retrieved 2021-06-05.
  6. ^ "Biografia". Congregação da Irmãzinhas da Imaculada Conceição (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on 2013-10-29. Retrieved 2013-10-26.
  7. ^ "Brazil gets first female saint". BBC News. May 19, 2002.
  8. ^ "St. Pauline of the Agonizing Heart of Jesus", Saints Resource, RCL Benziger Archived 2014-03-07 at the Wayback Machine

Literature

External links
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