Considered slow as a child, she joined the Sisters of Saint Dorothy and cared for sick children and patients in hospital. During the First World War she stayed with wounded soldiers under air raids, living a humble and steadfast love.
Life
Saint Bertilla Boscardin was born in 1888 to a poor farming family near Vicenza in northern Italy. She had little schooling, and those around her thought her slow. She entered the Sisters of Saint Dorothy and was first assigned to the kitchen and laundry.
Later, as a nursing sister at the hospital in Treviso, she cared devotedly for sick children and for soldiers wounded in the First World War. She herself suffered a serious illness and died in 1922. Pope John XXIII canonized her in 1961, and the Church remembers her on October 20.
Spirituality
Bertilla's spirituality is great love lived in small things. She considered herself of little account, yet she gave her whole heart to each patient. Her life shows that, whatever the world's judgment, God works through the humble.
Reflection
People called Bertilla slow, yet God comforted many patients through her. Am I setting aside the gifts God has given me because of what others think?