Giuseppina Vannini

At the end of the retreat in December 1891, Father Luigi Tezza, heir to the charism of Saint Camillus de Lellis, proposed to Giuditta Vannini that she help him establish a female congregation in the service of the sick. She accepted on February 2, 1892, the date generally accepted as the foundation of the Institute of the Daughters of Saint Camillus (Figlie di San Camillo). Taking the religious name Giuseppina, she received the habit, then pronounced her vows, and became Superior General of the new congregation. Under her leadership, the institute dedicated itself to works of corporal and spiritual mercy toward the sick, in the Camillian spirit of charitable service "like a mother" to those suffering. Despite precarious health and real material difficulties, Mother Giuseppina ensured the expansion of the work: the congregation spread first in Italy, then beyond its borders, notably to France, Belgium, and Argentina. She visited the houses regularly and supported her sisters. The congregation obtained diocesan approval on June 21, 1909, an official recognition that Giuseppina would have known before her death in 1911.

The spiritual journey of Giuseppina Vannini is marked by a proven fidelity. The orphan, rejected for health reasons by a first congregation, transforms her failures into a greater availability to the will of God: what seemed like a closed door leads her to found a new work. Her spirituality takes up the Camillian charism of caring for the sick, seen as a service to the suffering Christ, exercised with patience, gentleness, and self-denial. As Superior General, she combines governance with humility, fostering the growth of the institute at the cost of constant fatigue despite her own fragility. The testimonies accepted by the Church during her trial highlight her virtues of charity, fortitude, and spirit of sacrifice in the service of the most destitute. This reputation for holiness, maintained by her spiritual daughters after her death, would support the cause introduced in her favor and recognized by two miracles at the conclusion of the canonical investigation.

The cause of Giuseppina Vannini reached its conclusion in two stages. Pope John Paul II proclaimed her blessed on October 16, 1994, in St. Peter's Basilica, following the recognition of a first miracle attributed to her intercession. A second unexplained healing, examined by medical experts and then approved by the decree promulgated on May 14, 2019, under the pontificate of Francis, paved the way for her canonization. Pope Francis inscribed her in the catalogue of saints on October 13, 2019, in St. Peter's Square, during a celebration where Cardinal John Henry Newman and three other women (the religious sisters Mariam Thresia and Dulce Lopes Pontes, and the laywoman Marguerite Bays) were also canonized. Several sources highlight that she is presented as the first Roman woman canonized in over four centuries. Her liturgical memorial is fixed for February 23, the anniversary of her death. Her remains, initially buried in Rome, were transferred to the motherhouse of the congregation in Grottaferrata, in the Roman region.

The legacy of Saint Giuseppina Vannini is intertwined with the vitality of the institute she founded. The Daughters of Saint Camillus continue her work among the sick, the elderly, and the most vulnerable, perpetuating the Camillian charism of charitable service to the suffering. Starting from a humble Roman foundation, the congregation has developed on several continents: present in Europe, Latin America, and Africa, it includes numerous religious sisters spread across houses and care facilities throughout the world. The figure of Giuseppina Vannini, an orphan who became the mother of a religious family dedicated to alleviating illness, is associated with that of her co-founder, Blessed Luigi Tezza, whose intuition she extended. Her canonization in 2019 strengthened the influence of the congregation and led to her recognition as the first saint from the female Camillian family. Her tomb, at the motherhouse in Grottaferrata, remains a place of memory for her spiritual daughters and the faithful.