Bartolomea Capitanio

The work of Bartolomea Capitanio focused on charity in the service of the most destitute. A teacher committed to poor girls, she gradually expanded her action to the assistance of the sick and the marginalized of Lovere. With Vincenza Gerosa, who was older but eager to dedicate herself to the same works, and under the spiritual guidance of the priest Angelo Bosio, she settled on November 21, 1832, in a modest dwelling near the hospital of Lovere: this date marks the foundation of the Institute of the Sisters of Charity, later called the Sisters of Maria Bambina. The project combined the Christian education of young girls, the care of the sick, and the welcoming of the elderly and abandoned. Bartolomea conceived this charity as a participation in the redemptive love of Christ: according to the spirituality of the institute, "to love Jesus authentically also means to belong to his brothers." Her premature death, eight months after the foundation, left Vincenza Gerosa with the responsibility of growing the young congregation, which would develop well beyond Lovere.

The spiritual journey of Bartolomea Capitanio is characterized by an early and resolute desire for holiness; from adolescence, she is said to have formulated the aspiration to become "a saint, a saint quickly, a great saint." Her piety is rooted in union with Christ, whom she considers her spouse, and in an operative charity toward her neighbor, which she sees as inseparable from the love of God. Her interior life is marked by rigorous work on herself: examinations of conscience, mortifications, the struggle against pride and self-love, in a constant search for detachment. This tension between an ardent and lively nature and a will for interior discipline was noted by Pius XII during her canonization. Her charity was directed particularly toward the youth of her time, whom she wished to preserve from moral disorder. Renowned for her fervor and dedication during her lifetime, she left behind spiritual writings that testify to her union with God and still nourish the spirituality of the institute she founded.

The process for the recognition of her holiness opened relatively early: Bartolomea Capitanio was declared a Servant of God on March 8, 1866, under the pontificate of Pius IX. Pope Leo XIII proclaimed her venerable, a stage that recognizes the heroic nature of her virtues. She was beatified on May 30, 1926, by Pope Pius XI at St. Peter's Basilica. The supreme recognition occurred on May 18, 1950, when Pope Pius XII inscribed her in the catalogue of saints, jointly with her co-founder Vincenza Gerosa, during the same celebration at St. Peter's in Rome. In his homily, Pius XII highlighted her virginal chastity, her ardent piety, and her profound charity toward God and neighbor, noting the lively and intense temperament she knew how to orient toward the realities of heaven. Her liturgical feast is set for July 26, the anniversary of her death; some local calendars commemorate her on other dates. The bodies of the two saints are venerated in the sanctuary dedicated to them in Lovere.

The legacy of Bartolomea Capitanio survives above all through the congregation she co-founded. From 1884, the Sisters of Charity adopted the name Sisters of Maria Bambina, in reference to a statuette of the Child Virgin kept at their motherhouse and to the mystery of the Nativity of Mary; the motherhouse is today established in Milan. The institute, dedicated to education, the care of the sick, and assistance to the poor, experienced significant missionary expansion: from the mid-19th century, the sisters were called to work in Bengal, India. Today present on several continents—in Europe, Asia, Latin and North America, Africa, and the Middle East—the congregation numbered several thousand religious sisters spread across numerous houses. Saint Bartolomea Capitanio is honored as the patron saint of teachers, of the Sisters of Charity of Lovere, and of her hometown. Her example of charity lived out in a short life continues to inspire the spirituality of the institute and the cult rendered to her in Lovere.