At Piacenza in Emilia, Blessed Brigid of Jesus Morello, who, having been widowed, consecrated herself to the Lord in penance, devoting herself with all zeal to works of charity, and founded the Congregation of the Ursuline Sisters of Mary Immaculate for the Christian education of girls.
Lifespan: 1610–1679
Beatified: 15 March 1998 by Pope John Paul II
Memoria liturgica: 3 September
Trust, trust, great heart! God is our Father and will never abandon us!
Brigida Morello
Brigida Morello was born on 17 June 1610 in San Michele di Pagana, a small town in the province of Genoa, the sixth of eleven children in a deeply Christian family.
On 14 October 1633 she married Matteo Zancano and moved to Salsomaggiore, in the territory of Parma, where she put her virtues into practice.
The events of her varied life — first as a young woman rich in human and spiritual virtues, then as a faithful and wise wife, next as a Christian widow, and finally as a consecrated person and guide to her sisters — reflect with singular clarity the new Blessed’s trusting abandonment to the mercy of God, who is “slow to anger and great in love.”
At such a school, Blessed Brigida of Jesus learned the fundamental lesson of love expressed in daily dedication to the service of her neighbour. In an age when the ideals of womanhood were little esteemed, Blessed Morello quietly revealed the value of woman in family and in society. Enamoured of God, she was therefore ever ready to open her heart and arms to brothers and sisters in need. Enriched with mystical gifts yet tried, at the same time, by long and grave sufferings, she never ceased to be for her contemporaries an authentic teacher of the spiritual life and a significant example of that admirable synthesis between consecrated life and social and educational commitment.
In her writings there shines a constant invitation to trust in God. She loved to repeat: “Trust, trust, great heart! God is our Father and will never abandon us!”