At Cascia in Italy, Blessed Maria Teresa (Maria Giovanna) Fasce, abbess of a monastery of the Order of Saint Augustine, who joined asceticism and contemplation in the highest degree with works of charity carried out for pilgrims and the needy.
Lifespan: 1881–1947
Beatified: 12 October 1997 by Pope John Paul II
Memoria liturgica: 18 January
I prayed, and prudence was given to me; I entreated, and the spirit of wisdom came to me.
Wis 7:7
Maria Teresa Fasce was born on 27 December 1881 at Torriglia (Genoa), into a devoutly religious middle-class family, and in 1906 she entered the Augustinian monastery of Saint Rita at Cascia, of which she would serve as abbess from 1920 until her death.
Her life was marked by grave illness, principally a breast tumour with which she lived for twenty-seven years; yet, despite this, she lived in constant contemplation of the mystery of Christ.
The Church holds her up as a radiant example of a living synthesis between the contemplative life and humble witness of solidarity with others, especially with the poorest, the lowly, the abandoned, and the suffering.
She died at Cascia on 18 January 1947.