St. Caterina Volpicelli (1839-1894)

Caterina Volpicelli, founded the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart in July 1874 with the approval from the Cardinal Archbishop of Naples. The order was formally recognized by Pope Leo XIII on June 13, 1890. Born in Naples on January 21, 1839, Caterina was educated in the Royal School of St. Marcellino. Under the wise leadership of Margaret Savory, Caterina studied languages and music, atypical for women at that time. She was guided by the Spirit of the Lord, who revealed the plan of God through wise and holy spiritual directors including the Blessed Ludovico of Casoria. In addition to the founding of her order, Caterina also opened an orphanage and worked with Venerable Rosa Carafa Traetto to establish the Association of the Daughters of Mary. Caterina Volpicelli died in Naples on December 28, 1894. The new saint was beatified on April 29, 2001 by His Holiness John Paul II and canonized on April 26, 2009 by His Holiness Benedict XVI. In a homily, Pope Benedict noted of St. Caterina that she, “strove ‘to be of Christ in order to bring to Christ’ the people she came across in late nineteenth-century Naples, at a time of spiritual and social crisis”. This saint, the Holy Father concluded, “shows her own spiritual daughters, and all of us, the demanding path to a conversion that changes the heart at its roots and translates into activities coherent with the Gospel. Thus it is possible to lay the foundations for a society open to justice and solidarity, overcoming that economic and cultural imbalance which still exists in a large part of our planet”.