Vincenza Maria Poloni

On November 2, 1840, Luigia Poloni, along with three companions, inaugurated a community life dedicated to assisting the elderly and the sick at the Pio Ricovero in Verona. This experience, supported and accompanied by Blessed Carlo Steeb, gave birth to the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy (Sorelle della Misericordia). The new congregation received canonical approval from the Diocese of Verona on September 10, 1848; on that same day, Luigia pronounced her religious vows and took the name Vincenza Maria. Inspired by the spirituality of Saint Vincent de Paul, the community dedicated itself to the service of the poorest, the care of the sick, and education. Vincenza Maria directed it for about fifteen years as superior and spiritual mother. Under her leadership, the institute developed: according to sources, it numbered about forty-eight religious sisters at the time of the founder's death. Her governance was distinguished by prudence, humility, and constant devotion to the works of mercy, making the congregation a model of Christian charity in Verona during the Austro-Hungarian period.

The spirituality of Vincenza Maria Poloni is rooted in the recognition of Christ present in the poor and the sick. To her sisters, she reportedly recommended seeing in the destitute not inferiors but "masters" to be loved and served like Christ himself. This concrete charity, inherited from the school of Saint Vincent de Paul and nourished by the guidance of Blessed Carlo Steeb, was combined in her with an interior life of humility and self-forgetfulness. Testimonies highlight her spirit of service, her gentleness in the governance of the congregation, and her patience in trials. Afflicted by a tumor, she faced the suffering of her final years with a Christian firmness that left a mark on her contemporaries. Her reputation for holiness, already vivid during her lifetime, continued after her death within the institute she had founded and in the city of Verona, where her memory remains associated with devotion to the most destitute. This reputation for virtue founded, more than a century later, the opening of her cause for beatification.

The cause for the beatification of Vincenza Maria Poloni opened in Verona in 1990. Following the recognition of a miracle attributed to her intercession, approved on December 17, 2007, she was beatified on September 21, 2008, in Verona by Cardinal Angelo Amato, on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI. A second miracle paved the way for her canonization: according to sources, it involved the unexplained healing of a Chilean woman who, in 2013, suffered a severe aortic injury requiring major surgery, and who recovered after her intercession was invoked; another source mentions the healing of a nun from the congregation who was suffering, among other things, from a tumor. This miracle was ratified on January 27, 2025. Vincenza Maria Poloni was canonized on October 19, 2025, in Saint Peter's Square, by Pope Leo XIV, as part of a group of seven new saints. Her liturgical feast is set for November 11, the day of her death; the congregation she founded also celebrates her on September 10, the date of the institute's approval and her religious profession.

The legacy of Vincenza Maria Poloni continues through the congregation of the Sisters of Mercy of Verona, founded to spread the merciful love of Christ toward the poor and the sick. Born in Verona, the community has spread far beyond Italy: according to sources, the institute is present today in Europe, Latin America, and Africa, through several dozen communities. The religious sisters continue the works of charity, care, and education inherited from their founder. The memory of the saint remains particularly vivid in Verona, her native city and the place of her death, where her body was first buried in the municipal cemetery. The Roman recognition of 2025, by making her the first Veronese saint of recent times, has renewed the attention paid to her figure and her message: to serve Christ in the person of the most destitute. Her example is proposed as a model of concrete mercy, faithful to the tradition of charity embodied in Verona by Blessed Carlo Steeb, her spiritual father and co-founder.