Stories of Holiness

Soon to be beatified, two Italian lay faithful

Pope Francis has given the go ahead for the beatification of the mystic, Edvige Carboni and the young Benedetta Bianchi Porro
Benedetta Bianchi Porro.jpg

Two Italian lay faithful will be beatified, the mystic Edvige Carboni and the young Benedetta Bianchi Porro. Together with them, 11 martyrs will also be beatified including a father killed out of hatred for the faith during the Spanish War.

The first of the two “new” Blesseds, Edvige Carboni, who lived between the last decades of the Nineteen Hundreds and the first half of the twentieth century, wanted to be consecrated to the Lord but owing to her mother’s illness, she decided to help her and look after the entire family. She spent her life between her humble daily life and mystic phenomena, even receiving the stigmata which she tried to hide in every way possible. She had to deal with gossip and slander, she was even subject to a Canonical Enquiry from which she was absolved and dedicated her life to service to the poor and sick.

Together with her, Benedetta Bianchi Porro will also be proclaimed a Blessed.  She died in Sirmione del Garda in 1964.  After becoming ill with polio, she dreamed of becoming a doctor in order to cure the sick.  She succeeded in taking some exams for a degree in medicine despite her precarious health which led to her becoming blind, deaf and paralysed.  In the darkness of her pain, she was illumined by a light: Jesus. Benedetta turned herself into a gift for others.  Many people went t visit her, attracted by the mystery of a girl who, struck by tremendous suffering reacted with love and hope, so much so that shortly before dying, she delivered this message: “Love life, because I, too, have been happy with that which God gave me”.

 

 

14 November 2018