At Rome, Saint Paula Frassinetti, virgin, who, having overcome many difficulties at the outset, founded the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Dorothy for the Christian education of girls, persevering in her work with great courage and a consummate blend of gentleness and zeal.
Lifespan: 1809–1882
Beatified: 8 June 1930 by Pope Pius XI
Canonized: 11 March 1984 by Pope John Paul II, Vatican Basilica
Memoria liturgica: 11 June
“The will of God is the only gem we must seek: the will of God, my paradise.”
On 3 March 1809, the day of her birth, Paula Frassinetti became a daughter of God. She received Baptism in the Parish of Santo Stefano in Genoa, her native city.
The third-born after Giuseppe and Francesco, Paula grew up peacefully in her father’s home, which was later gladdened by the births of Giovanni and Raffaele. Her mother was her clearest example of virtue, and the little girl opened herself gently to divine grace, which worked wonders in her according to God’s plan. The good Angela did not live to see the Lord’s designs for her daughter. She died leaving Paula, still at the age of play, to care for the household. These were days of bewilderment and grief… Paula was nine years old! She spared herself nothing, and showed loving, delicate care toward her father Giovanni Battista and her brothers — care that demanded no few sacrifices and renunciations.
Her First Communion and her brother Giuseppe’s ordination to the priesthood were moments of deep reflection for her, who already felt in her heart the divine attractions. She learned to read and write at home, and there received the foundations of her formation.
Her brother Giuseppe, now well advanced in his studies of theology, spoke to her of the things of God, and Paula listened and received the word that descended into her heart. She sensed the call to follow the Lord more closely, and the Master’s words resounded deeply within her: “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.”
But — there was a but! Her father was not enthusiastic: how would he manage without his Paolina?
And Paula compelled herself to silence that desire, waiting for God’s hour. And the occasion came.
At nineteen, worn by the stressful pace of her life as a precocious mother of the household, she suffered a moment of exhaustion; her brother Don Giuseppe, parish priest of a village on the Ligurian Riviera, offered her lodging for a time. The pure air of Quinto was good medicine for her delicate health. Parish life was a school of goodness for her; little by little, with her warm affability, she drew the young women of that village to herself. Every Sunday they went into the woods to speak of God. The meetings recurred often, and the conversation opened to other girls. Paula revealed to them the secret of a life wholly given to the Lord, and discovered her own aptitudes and her vocation as an educator. Around her a committed group took shape, living in a communion of love. In her mind the idea of a new Institute grew clear: she confided it to her brother Don Giuseppe.
Soon, despite obstacles and sufferings, the ideal became a reality. Six companions survived those first, so difficult moments. Paula was determined. Under the sign of the Cross her work began — that Cross which she would love for all her life and which would move her to exclaim: “Whoever sacrifices more, loves more.” And so on 12 August 1834, in the sanctuary of San Martino in Albaro, seven young women offered their lives to God. The Mass was celebrated by her brother Don Giuseppe, who had prepared them for that momentous step. They were joyful; within a few hours they would lay the first stone of their Institute, begin to live in community, anchoring themselves to the one true wealth: Jesus Christ. For they had nothing — they were poor in the little house in Quinto which they had chosen as their first home. They opened a school for the very poorest girls, and so had to work even at night to survive. Enthusiasm was not lacking, and the school’s first successes followed. But the Lord’s ways are not our ways: sufferings were for Paula the test of God’s will. Cholera spread through Genoa, and her daughters were on the front lines, bringing aid and comfort.
In 1835 a Bergamasque priest — Don Luca Passi, a friend of Don Giuseppe — learning of Paula’s apostolic ardour, proposed that she incorporate into her Institute the Pia Opera di Santa Dorotea, which he had founded with the aim of reaching the poorest and most needy young women in their own working and living environment. Paula found in the originality of this work her own educational approach and the apostolic dimension of her consecration, and did not hesitate to include it among the activities of her Institute. Her sisters would no longer be called “Daughters of Holy Faith” but Sisters of Saint Dorothy. This was an important moment for the life of that first community, which saw taking concrete form the original inspiration: “To be entirely available in the hands of God, to evangelize through education, giving preference to the young and the poorest.”
Other houses arose in Genoa, and then came the turn of the centre of Christendom. Barely seven years after the founding, on 19 May 1841, Paula arrived in Rome accompanied by two novices. Here too various difficulties arose. The first house consisted of two small rooms above a stable in the Vicolo dei Santi Apostoli. But she accepted everything. A great reward awaited her: she was received by Pope Gregory XVI, who was pleased with the work of the Dorothean Sisters. The Lord had spoken to her; she was joyful.
Hardships and sufferings increased: poverty and illness afflicted those heroic sisters, who had not a penny even for medicines.
In 1844 the Pope entrusted Paula with the direction of the Conservatory of Santa Maria del Rifugio at San Onofrio. The Mother, with gentleness and charity, gave the environment a new character and set its future on a decisive course. Through her presence and activity, the San Onofrio house became the Generalate.
In 1846 an antireligious spirit — more than any political ideology — spread across Italy. In Genoa the Dorotheans too were targeted. Paula’s daughters lived through their first hours of intense suffering.
The storm fell on Rome as well: Pius IX, who had succeeded Gregory XVI, was forced to take refuge at Gaeta. Cardinals, bishops, and prelates left the capital. Paula remained alone at the head of a large community and, with courageous faith, overcame those dramatic moments.
The storm subsided. It was 1850. Paula obtained the long-desired audience with Pius IX, who was for her like a father. She travelled to Gaeta, driven by great love for the Pope and for the Church — evoking in this the gesture of Saint Catherine of Siena.
The last thirty years of the Foundress’s life now began — a period we may rightly call one of great expansion, as the Institute, having consolidated itself in Liguria and the Papal States, extended its work to the rest of Italy and to the world. Various educational centres arose in Rome, and Paula began negotiations to open a house in Naples, a boarding school in Bologna, and an orphanage in Recanati. In 1866 the first missionary sisters departed for Brazil. That same year brought another promising destination: Portugal. Paula sustained her daughters: “Be torches and burning fires — wherever they touch, they kindle the fire of God’s love.”
Difficulties do not halt the march of the saints. Paula was a woman of great faith: “The Lord wants us to lean on him alone, and if we had a little more faith, how much more peacefully we would rest even in the midst of tribulations.” She lived in complete abandonment to the will of God — “the only gem we must seek,” as she said — which was her paradise: “The will of God, my paradise.”
In 1878 Pius IX died — the Pope who, in his many meetings with the Foundress, always had words of esteem and encouragement for her apostolic work.
Paula sensed that her laborious earthly day was drawing to a close. It was the early hours of 11 June 1882: she was serene; her passing was gentle and peaceful, and allowed a glimpse of the riches of her life. She called upon the Blessed Virgin, whom she had always loved so deeply: “My Lady, remember that I am your daughter.”