Saint of the Day – 20 April – Blessed Chiara Bosatta DSMP (1858-1887)

Saint of the Day – 20 April – Blessed Chiara Bosatta DSMP (1858-1887) Virgin Religious, Mystic, Apostle of Charity, co-Founder alongside her sister and Saint Luigi Guanella  (1842-1915) – the Daughters of Saint Mary of Providence – born on 27 May 1858 in Pianello del Lario, Como, Italy as Dina Bosatta and died on 20 April 1887 in Pianello del Lario, Como, Italy of natural causes, aged 28.   Patronage – Daughters of Saint Mary of Providence.   Her body is incorrupt.
Blessed Chiara managed the new order of the Daughters of St Mary, in her hometown and the surrounding areas.   In her service to the poor she contracted tuberculosis which caused her death at such a young age, in 1887.

Dina Bosatta was born in 1858 in Como to Alessandro Bosatta and Rosa Mazzocchi – her father worked as a silk manufacturer who died in 1861 when she was but a toddler.   She was the last of eleven siblings, 9 brothers and one sister, Marcellina.

She studied with the Daughters of Charity at the age of thirteen in 1871.   She decided to consecrate her life to God and made the decision to become a nun and so entered into the period of novitiate with the Canossians from 1871 to 1878.   However, after a while, she descerned that their charism was not that, of which she felt she was being called and so left that congregation to pursue her vocation elsewhere.   Despite this, she was enthralled with their charism and admired their spirit and strong dedication to their rules of life.

Dina returned to her home and joined with her sister Marcellina and the two joined the Daughters of Mary that Father Carlo Copponi had established.    Marcellina would later become the superior of the order.   The pair also worked at a hospice to tend to neglected children and older people as well as teaching children.

The sisters then co-ordinated their efforts in establishing a new religious congregation – the Daughters of Saint Mary of Providence – together with Saint Luigi Guanella.   It was at this point that she took the religious name of “Chiara.”    She was professed as a nun on 27 October 1878.

Tending to the poor bought unwanted consequences for Bosatta when she contracted tuberculosis – this disease would the the cause of her very young death.   She initially went back to her home town in an attempt to stall the illness by a change of climate but she died, not long after, on 20 April 1887.   Her Shrine rests at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart in Como.

Blessed Chiara was Beatified after the approval of a miracle by St Pope John Paul on 21 April 1991 at the Vatican.

From the Sisters of the Daughters of St Mary of Providence:

“There is no doubt, that Blessed Chiara contributed with her prayers from heaven, to ensure that Fr Guanella was declared a Saint.   We know that Blessed Chiara had a crucial influence on the Founder’s journey to sainthood.   Still today, those who kneel before their urns at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart in Como, cannot but receive that holy incentive, to integrate hard-working charity, with the contemplation of the sources, from which the grace of our activity comes.
May the memory of Sr Chiara’s Beatification revive in all of us, gratitude to the Lord for our holy origins.   Faithfulness to living their spirit and putting it into practice will increase our faith and love.
Walking towards holiness together, as Fr Guanella, Sr Chiara and all the good people of God did, will reinforce communion and collaboration among the people of God.
We also want to renew our commitment of spreading the devotion to Blessed Chiara and to ask our Blessed for her intercession, so that her holiness may be proposed to the entire Christian world with her Canonisation.
St Luigi Guanella loved Sr Chiara.
In the beginning he was puzzled by her religious life-style.   He had an inspiration that Sr Chiara was a mystic and was, therefore, moved to intensely study the works of St Theresa of Avila.   From then on, he understood that Sr Chiara was a saint and a mystic. She was the “little flower” of Guanellian spirituality.
Fr Guanella wrote a biography of Blessed Chiara.   It is available at the St Louis Centre upon request.”

St Luigi’s Biography here:  https://anastpaul.com/2018/10/24/saint-of-the-day-24-october-st-luigi-guanella-1842-1915-servant-of-charity/

Prayer for the Intercession of Blessed Chiara Bosatta

O Jesus, Saviour of the lowly,
who made Blessed Chiara Bosatta shine
through the spirit of sacrifice,
by rendering her an untiring apostle of Your Gospel among the poor.
Teach us her total abandonment to Divine Providence,
her love of prayer,
her patience in suffering
and her spirit of dedication to the most needy.
Grant us, through her intercession,
the grace ………………………
that we ask You trustingly,
through Christ our Lord.
Amen!
Our Father … Hail Mary … Glory Be … Blessed Chiara, intercede for us!