Gertrude Prosperi
Gertrude Prosperi (19 August 1799 – 13 September 1847) was an Italian Benedictine. Prosperi assumed the religious name Maria Luisa Angelica and finally served as the abbess of her convent for an extended period of time until her death.
Prosperi recounted that she experienced a series of angelic visions in which she witnessed the Passion of Jesus Christ and she began to feel tremendous pain while continuing to experience a range of visions and emotions brought on due to these things. She was well known among her peers for strict observance to the Rule of Saint Benedict of Nursia and for her ardent devotion to both the Sacred Heart of Jesus and to the Eucharist.
Her cause for sainthood commenced prior to the onslaught of World War I and was cut short due to the conflict but was revitalized decades later and culminated when Pope Benedict XVI approved a miracle needed for her to be beatified; Cardinal Angelo Amato - on the pope's behalf - presided over the beatification in Perugia on 10 November 2012.
In the Martyrology
- September 12 Blessed Maria Luisa Prosperi, abbess