Giulia Salzano

The work of Giulia Salzano is entirely focused on catechesis. Convinced of the decisive importance of religious instruction, she spared no effort in forming people of all ages and conditions in the faith, combining solid pedagogical preparation with great spiritual fervor. A group of collaborators sharing this apostolic ideal gradually gathered around her. This catechetical work took on a stable religious form when, on November 21, 1905, in Casoria, the first sisters received the habit: this was the birth of the Congregation of the Catechist Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, of which Giulia Salzano was the founder and which she would lead as superior. The mission of the institute is explicitly the teaching of Christian doctrine and the promotion of devotion to the Sacred Heart and the Eucharist. Encouraged, according to tradition, by Blessed Ludovico da Casoria and linked to the apostolate of Blessed Caterina Volpicelli for the spread of devotion to the Heart of Jesus, Giulia Salzano remained an active catechist until the end, faithful to her resolution to teach "as long as she had a breath of life."

The holiness of Giulia Salzano is rooted in an ardent devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which she placed at the center of her life and her institute, and in a tender Marian piety that she strove to communicate to her students as well as to her sisters. For her, teaching catechism was not just one activity among others but the highest expression of the love of God and neighbor: convinced that man is created to know, love, and serve God, she believed that nothing should take precedence over this mission. During the canonization, Pope Benedict XVI emphasized that she had understood "the importance of catechesis in the Church" and that she had given herself to it with generosity and intelligence; he reported that she would repeat to her sisters her desire to teach catechism until the very last hour of her life. This desire was literally fulfilled: she examined children for their first communion the very day before her death. This consistency between teaching and witness, joined to a life of humility and prayer, established her reputation for holiness in Casoria and in the Naples region.

The cause of Giulia Salzano led to the recognition of the heroic nature of her virtues, and subsequently to that of a first miracle, the decree for which was approved on December 20, 2002: it concerned the healing of Stefania Milo, a young girl from Naples suffering from a severe bacterial infection with purulent meningitis, which occurred in 1993. On this basis, Pope John Paul II proclaimed Giulia Salzano blessed on April 27, 2003. For the canonization, the unexplained healing of Mrs. M. Grazia Pelliccia, from Afragola (province of Naples), was recognized: a victim of a serious road accident, she suffered a cardiac arrest lasting about twenty minutes during an operation, but recovered her health completely, without neurological sequelae, after incessant prayers of intercession addressed to the blessed. At the consistory of February 19, 2010, Benedict XVI set the date for the canonization, which took place on October 17, 2010, in Saint Peter's Square, during a celebration where, among others, Brother André Bessette and Mary MacKillop were also canonized. The liturgical memorial of Saint Giulia Salzano is celebrated on May 17, the day of her death.

The legacy of Saint Giulia Salzano continues above all in the congregation of the Catechist Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, whose motherhouse remains in Casoria, near Naples, and which continues her work of religious instruction and the education of youth. Her remains are venerated in the crypt of the institute's motherhouse church in Casoria, a place of pilgrimage for the faithful of the region and for the religious sisters who claim her charism. A figure of the "new evangelization" through catechesis, she is often presented as a model for catechists: her insistence on the primacy of teaching the faith, her devotion to the Sacred Heart, and her tireless apostolic zeal make her a reference for contemporary catechetical apostolate. Her city of origin, Santa Maria Capua Vetere, and Casoria, where she lived and died, maintain her memory through annual celebrations, notably around her feast day on May 17.