Giuditta Vannini
Giuditta Vannini (7 July 1859 – 23 February 1911) – also known as Giuseppina – was an Italian religious sister. Together with Luigi Tezza she established the religious congregation known as the Daughters of Saint Camillus. She and her two siblings were orphaned as children and were placed in different homes; she was raised and educated in Rome under nuns where her vocation to the religious life was strengthened. Vannini later tried joining a religious order but was forced to leave during her novitiate period after suffering from ill health. She and Tezza met in 1891 and founded a religious congregation of which Vannini served as Superior General until her death while Tezza was exiled to Peru around 1900.
Her beatification process opened in the 1950s, though its formal introduction came in the late 1970s at which point she became titled as a Servant of God; she became titled as Venerable in 1992 upon papal confirmation of her heroic virtue. Pope John Paul II presided over Vannini's beatification on 16 October 1994. Pope Francis confirmed her canonization in mid-2019 and canonized her as a saint in Saint Peter's Square on 13 October 2019.
Patron saint of Daughters of St. Camillus
In the Martyrology
- February 23 Saint Giuseppina Vannini, virgin, founder of the Daughters of Saint Camillus