Rosa Venerini was born in Italy in 1656. Her father was a wealthy doctor and her mother raised the four children. At an early age, Rosa decided to consecrate herself to God, and when she was 20 she left home to join a Dominican community, but she wasn’t gone long. When her father died suddenly, Rosa returned home to help her widowed mother. Not long later, Rosa’s older brother died unexpectedly, and then her mother died of a broken heart. Rosa formed a prayer group in her home, and when she saw the lack of education—both secular and religious—she was determined to make a difference. With the approval of her bishop and the help of two friends, she opened a school, then another, and another. Before her death, she opened 40 schools.
CHALLENGE
St. Rosa Venerini often met opposition because in a day and age when poor women were uneducated, this upper-class woman worked to educate the poor. Some of her teachers had their houses burned down and were shot at with arrows, but St. Rosa Venerini never wavered. She kept teaching and kept finding people who were willing to face the danger in order to do good. What good are you called to do? Will you do it in face of opposition?
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