Saint Magdalene of Canossa

Magdalene was born in Verona on March 1, 1774, the third child of Marquis Ottavio of Canossa and the Hungarian countess Teresa Szluha. Her childhood was marked by two blows: in 1779 her father died during an outing in the Lessini Mountains, and two years later her mother remarried and left the children. Magdalene and her siblings were placed with tutors, as was the custom among the nobility. The girls got a French governess, Francesca Marianna Capron, and it was bad luck: she was cruel and repressive, and she left her mark on Magdalene. When that woman left, the girl suddenly fell seriously ill. Twice she tried to become a Carmelite and twice she turned back: that wasn’t her path. Meanwhile it fell to her to run the Canossa household, which she did for years. When Napoleon passed through Verona, the family palace served as his lodging, and she found herself dealing with him. In 1808 she opened the first house in the poor neighborhood of San Zeno. From there came the Daughters of Charity, and later the Sons: women and men who looked after girls living on the street, the sick in hospitals, the training of women teachers. It wasn’t charity from on high — Magdalene went to live in those neighborhoods, and stayed. She died in Verona on April 10, 1835. John Paul II proclaimed her a saint in 1988. If your name is Magdalene, today is your name day — though many wait for July twenty-second.