Itala Mela

In 1923, Itala joined the Italian Federation of Catholic University Students (FUCI), becoming a national leader and forming friendships with figures such as Angela Gotelli, Father Giovanni Battista Montini (the future Paul VI), and Cardinal Schuster. As her fragile health prevented her from entering a monastery, she became a Benedictine oblate in 1933 at the monastery of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, taking the name Mary of the Trinity. She made a fifth vow of consecration to the Indwelling of the Trinity and wrote numerous theological treatises and spiritual notes.

On August 3, 1928, in the church of San Francesco in Pontremoli, Itala experienced a major mystical event where she was called to make known the mystery of the presence of the Trinity in the hearts of the baptized. Despite heavenly visions, she endured severe physical trials, notably severe arthritis, and diabolical persecutions. She offered her sufferings for the Church and for priests, and passed away on April 29, 1957, in La Spezia. Her remains were transferred to the Cathedral of Christ the King in 1983.

The cause for beatification opened in 1968. Pope Francis declared her venerable on June 12, 2014, and subsequently approved on December 14, 2015, a miracle attributed to her intercession: the unexplained healing of a newborn, Erminia Bertoli, born in a state of clinical brain death in Sarzana in 1999. Itala Mela was solemnly beatified on June 10, 2017, in La Spezia by Cardinal Angelo Amato on behalf of Pope Francis.

The spirituality of Itala Mela is profoundly Trinitarian, centered on the doctrine of the Indwelling of the Trinity in the soul in a state of grace. Her mystical and theological writings, often compared to those of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, testify to her role as a great lay mystical figure of the 20th century, showing that contemplation and holiness are fully accessible to the laity in the world.