From a wealthy family in Brescia, Italy, she devoted herself to the sick during a cholera epidemic. She founded the Handmaids of Charity to serve patients in hospitals and on battlefields.
Life
Saint Mary Crucified Di Rosa, born Paola Di Rosa in 1813 to a wealthy family in Brescia, Italy, cared as a young woman for the women working in her father's mill, helping them in faith and in daily life.
When cholera broke out in Brescia in 1836, she nursed the sick devotedly in the hospital, and in 1840, with like-minded women, she founded the Handmaids of Charity. The congregation extended its service to hospitals, schools and even the care of wounded soldiers on the battlefield. She died in 1855 and was canonized in 1954. The Church remembers her on December 15.
Spirituality
The spirituality of Mary Crucified is practical charity flowing from love for Christ crucified. She saw Christ in those who suffered and, rather than enjoy a comfortable life, went into danger to care for the sick. Her religious name shows that the cross was the source of that love.
Reflection
Mary Crucified left a comfortable life to go to the side of plague victims. Of the comforts I enjoy, what could I share with neighbors in need?