Blessed Paula Gambara Costa
Also known as: Countess Costa
Feast Day
24 January; 23 January (diocese of Brescia, Italy); 29 March on some calendars
Born
3 March 1463 in Verola Alghise (modern Verolanuova), Brescia, Duchy of Milan (in modern Lombardy, Italy)
Died
24 January 1515 in Binaco, Duchy of Milan (in modern Lombardy, Italy) of a fever; buried in a church outside the walls of convent of Rocchetta that she had helped re-build; the church was destroyed in 1536 during a war between Francis I and Charles V, and Paula’s was re-interred in the nearby castle; relics later enshrined in an urn in a chapel built by the Counts of Costa in the Franciscan monastery of Bene Vagienna
Beatified
14 August 1845 by Pope Gregory XVI (cultus confirmation)
Biography
Blessed Paula Gambara Costa (1460s–1510s), venerated for her steadfast faith amid profound marital hardship, was born into the noble Gambara family of Lombardy, eldest daughter of Giampaolo Gambara and Taddea Caterina Martinengo. From youth, she nurtured a quiet devotion, seeking religious life and dedicating herself to prayer and spiritual reading. In 1485, however, she was married by arrangement to Lodovico Antonio Costa, Count of Benasco, a man whose worldly pursuits—hunting, feasting, and revelry—clashed violently with her piety. Her husband, contemptuous of her devotion to the poor, subjected her to abuse, particularly after she distributed vast quantities of food to the needy upon the birth of her son, Giovanni Francesco, in 1488. His infidelity culminated in 1494 when he brought his mistress into their castle, intensifying Paula’s suffering. A
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