Saint Maria Crocifissa Di Rosa

Maria Crocifissa Di Rosa, born Paola Francesca Di Rosa on November 6, 1813, was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Ancelle della carità in 1839. She worked at her father's spinning mill where she tended to the spiritual and material needs of female workers under his encouragement. With several women joining her efforts, Di Rosa established a congregation dedicated to caring for the poor. Her apostolate focused on tending to the ill in hospitals and soldiers going to the front. Maria Crocifissa Di Rosa passed away on December 15, 1855. She was beatified by Pope Pius XII in mid-1940 and canonized on June 12, 1954.