Bianca Piccolomini Clementini

In memory of her brother, Bianca and her mother founded a sewing and embroidery workshop in 1907-1908 for young working women in Siena, the Laboratorio cooperativo Advocata Senensium. Bianca took charge of it, ensuring not only their professional training but also their human and religious education. She also acquired a space for a Catholic youth circle to which her brother had verbally committed before his death.

Through her charitable commitments, Bianca felt the call to dedicate her life to God while remaining in the world, without the obligation of monastic enclosure. She discovered in the Rule of the Company of Saint Ursula, founded in the 16th century by Saint Angela Merici, the ideal formula for a secular consecration.

On November 25, 1917, in the presence of the Archbishop of Siena, Msgr. Prospero Scaccia, she founded the Compagnia di Sant'Angela Merici di Siena (Company of Saint Angela Merici of Siena) with two companions, Matilde Chiantini and Zenobia Boscagli. Bianca took the religious name Sister Margherita del Santissimo Sacramento (Margaret of the Blessed Sacrament) and assumed the role of superior. Her mother, initially reluctant toward this novel form of consecrated life, joined the Company a year later.

Under Bianca's leadership, the institute developed numerous social and educational works: - The Santa Regina Agricultural Colony (Colonia Agricola Santa Regina): Founded in December 1920 at the Villa Santa Regina, it welcomed and trained young girls from the countryside and single mothers. - Teaching and apprenticeship: She created an agricultural apprenticeship school (which would obtain official parity in 1938) and an agricultural technical school in 1944. She also assumed the management of several kindergartens and a primary school. - Spiritual life: She organized spiritual retreats and promoted nocturnal Eucharistic adoration, particularly in reparation for priests and consecrated persons.

Bianca Piccolomini Clementini led a life of intense prayer and penance, offering herself particularly for the sanctification of the clergy. Recognized for her exceptional devotion to the Church, she received the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice cross of honor from Pope Benedict XV. On August 15, 1956, the municipality of Siena awarded her the prestigious Mangia d'argento civic prize for her social, educational, and religious work.

In her final years, Bianca was severely tested by illness, becoming blind and unable to walk. In 1957, she resigned from her position as superior of the Company. She passed away piously on August 14, 1959, at the Villa Santa Regina in Siena, at the age of 84.

The cause for the beatification and canonization of Bianca Piccolomini Clementini was officially opened in the Archdiocese of Siena. The diocesan inquiry took place from June 11, 1986, to March 31, 1995, gathering numerous testimonies and documents regarding her life and virtues.

Following the examination of the cause by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Pope Francis authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing her heroic virtues on March 3, 2016, thereby declaring her Venerable.

The spirituality of Bianca Piccolomini Clementini is deeply Eucharistic and Marian, centered on intimate union with Christ through the Eucharist and the mystery of the Cross. She knew how to reconcile rigorous mystical contemplation with a pragmatic and innovative social commitment to the advancement of women and rural classes.

Her legacy endures today through the Company of Saint Angela Merici of Siena (affiliated with the Federation of the Companies of Saint Ursula - Secular Institute of Angela Merici), which continues to bear witness to the Gospel in secular life. Her numerous spiritual and pedagogical writings, collected in several volumes, remain a source of inspiration for consecrated life in the world.