Rose Venerini

On August 30, 1685, with the approval of the ecclesiastical authority and the collaboration of her friends Gerolama Coluzzelli and Porzia Bacci, Rose Venerini opened a school in Viterbo intended for young girls, particularly the poorest. Official sources present it as the first public school for girls in Italy. The initiative responded to a new intuition for the time: to offer girls, without distinction of status, an education that was both religious and practical. The work developed rapidly. From 1692 to 1694, a dozen schools were founded in Montefiascone and in the villages around Lake Bolsena, with the support of Cardinal Marcantonio Barbarigo. In 1713, after several years of effort, a school was established in Rome, near the Capitoline. On October 24, 1716, Pope Clement XI came in person to visit this Roman school and approved its teaching. At her death, Rose Venerini had founded more than forty schools. The teachers she trained, called Maestre Pie Venerini (Pious Venerini Teachers), formed an apostolic community dedicated to teaching, living among the people rather than in monastic enclosure.

Sources agree in describing the life of Rose Venerini as animated by two great passions: the passion for God and the passion for the salvation of souls. Formed in Ignatian spirituality, she placed the transmission of the faith and the moral and Christian formation of young girls at the heart of her educational work. During the canonization mass, Pope Benedict XVI emphasized that it was precisely from her abandonment to God that the clear-sighted activity she carried out with courage in favor of the spiritual elevation and authentic emancipation of the young women of her time sprang forth. She was not content, the Pope added, with giving them an adequate education, but was concerned with ensuring them a complete formation, founded on the doctrinal teaching of the Church. Her reputation for holiness, attested to from her death in 1728, led to the rapid opening of her cause. Her courage in the face of opposition and material difficulties, her perseverance, and her trust in Providence are the traits that hagiographic tradition has retained as marks of her virtue.

The cause for beatification was introduced shortly after the death of Rose Venerini, but its progress was long. On May 4, 1952, Pope Pius XII proclaimed her blessed in Rome (a secondary source indicates April 4, but Vatican sources maintain May 4, 1952). More than half a century later, on April 28, 2006, Benedict XVI authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing a miracle attributed to her intercession, opening the way for canonization. This was celebrated in Saint Peter's Square, in Rome, on October 15, 2006, during a ceremony where Rose Venerini was canonized alongside three other blesseds. In his homily, Benedict XVI presented her as an example of a faithful disciple of Christ, ready to abandon everything to fulfill the will of God. Her liturgical memorial is celebrated on May 7, the anniversary of her death.

The legacy of Rose Venerini continues through the Congregation of the Maestre Pie Venerini, born from the community of teachers she had formed. Today, the Venerini sisters are present on several continents: in addition to Italy, they are found notably in Albania, Brazil, Cameroon, Chile, India, Nigeria, Romania, the United States, and Benin, where they pursue a mission of education and human advancement. Rose Venerini is widely recognized as a pioneer of public education for girls in Italy: her school in Viterbo, opened in 1685, is presented by official sources as the first public school for girls in the country. Her pedagogical model, uniting religious formation and comprehensive instruction, has marked the history of female education. Her relics, transferred during her beatification in 1952, are venerated by the congregation she founded. Her figure remains associated with the city of Viterbo, where she was born, and Rome, where she died and where her work developed.