Sat, Sept 20th, in Como, Italy, an alum of the Visitation Sisters Boarding School of Como was beatified in the Cathedral there.
Beatification Mass video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WH-R6u1YlCA
Blessed Mother Giovannina Franchi was the Foundress of the Congregation, Congregazione delle Suore Infermiere dell’Addolorata, founded in the mid 1850’s.
http://www.suoreinfermieredelladdolorata.org/
Cardinal Angelo Amato presided over the ceremony, concelebrated with Bishop Diego Coletti, along with six other bishops, and more than a hundred priests. Thousands of the faithful attended, accompanied, in the liturgy, with more than 250 singers.
Born in Como June 24, 1807, Giovannina Franchi was the daughter of a famous judge of the city court. Giovannina spent her youth in a family with brothers and sisters and from 1814 to 1824 went to study at the boarding school of San Carlo of the Visitation Sisters of Como.
Giovannina “was entrusted to the nuns of the Monastery of the Visitation to complete her education and absorbed the charism and spirit of St. Francis de Sales … The girl guests remained in the convent of the Visitation … sharing with cloistered nuns, completely separated from their families,which only changed when leaving the boarding school. They saw family rarely , beyond the grate of the parlor. ”
“In 1824 she finished her studies. She, like the other companions who left the monastery to return to her family was given a kind of manual that, as a spiritual guide and behavioral guide had to accompany a young women once back in the world …”
Returning to her family she devoted herself to teaching the catechism and to works of charity. In 1853 she began her path of total devotion to the suffering poor. After taking the vows , stripped of her riches, she opened on via Vitani with three companions the first Home for the sick and convalescent, providing care at home. She died February 23, 1872 after devoting her whole life to the aid of the needy.
Source:
http://www.ilgiorno.it/como/giovannina-franchi-beatificazione-1.217402
Additional References, including videos, Italian:
http://www.ciaocomo.it/madre-giovannina-franchi-e-beata/
http://www.news.va/it/news/a-como-la-beatificazione-di-madre-giovannina-fra-2
English: