Saint Virginia Centurione Bracelli

Virginia Centurione was born in Genoa on April 2, 1587, the daughter of Giorgio Centurione, who became doge of the Republic, and of Lelia Spinola. She was even taught Latin, which was unusual for a girl. At fifteen her father gave her in marriage to Gaspare Grimaldi Bracelli, sole heir to an extremely wealthy family and — the sources say — given to gambling and a dissolute life. In 1606 he fell ill with tuberculosis; she nursed him until his death in 1607. She was left a widow at twenty, with two little girls. Her father wanted to marry her off again; she refused and wouldn’t give in. The years that followed were terrible for Genoa: war, the famine of 1624, the plague of 1630. Virginia opened up her own house, then rented others, then took over the former convent of Monte Calvario. In the end she was caring for hundreds of people: orphans, the elderly, girls from the street, refugees. From there came her congregations, which the Genoese still call the Brignoline. And she did one more thing, the least predictable of all: in 1635, in the middle of a crisis, she became a mediator between the factions of the Republic, and she succeeded. In 1637 the city proclaimed the Madonna its queen, and she had her part in that decision. She died in Genoa on December 15, 1651. If your name is Virginia, today is your name day.