Ilia Corsaro

On November 3, 1928, before the Blessed Sacrament, Ilia Corsaro pronounced her "yes" to God and founded in Bagnoli the Congregation of the Little Eucharistic Missionaries (Piccole Missionarie Eucaristiche - PME). The institute is dedicated to catechesis, education, and charitable works for children, the poor, and families, particularly in the peripheral and working-class areas of Bagnoli, which was then undergoing rapid industrialization.

Inspired by the example of Saint Francis of Assisi, the sisters live in radical poverty and abandon themselves totally to Divine Providence. They take turns day and night to ensure perpetual Eucharistic adoration, drawing from the tabernacle the strength necessary for their mission.

The work developed rapidly: - 1932: The Bishop of Pozzuoli approved the association in the form of a "Pious Union" (Pia Unione). - 1934: Faced with the educational emergency, the congregation opened its first school in Bagnoli. - 1938: At the request of the bishop, Ilia agreed to teach at the episcopal high school (liceo ginnasio vescovile), while her sisters multiplied educational activities in disadvantaged neighborhoods, orphanages, and post-war summer camps. - 1939: The institute received official diocesan approval from the Bishop of Pozzuoli. - 1954: The Archbishop of Naples also granted his approval. On March 14, 1954, Mother Ilia and 26 of her companions pronounced their solemn religious vows. - 1974: On June 13, the congregation was recognized as being of pontifical right by the Holy See. - 1968: She convened a special Chapter to revise the institute's Constitutions in accordance with the guidelines of the Second Vatican Council.

The congregation gradually expanded beyond Campania and Italy, founding missions in Switzerland, Brazil (notably in Óbidos), Peru, and Albania.

Mother Ilia Corsaro led a life of intense prayer and silent immolation. Afflicted by a serious illness (colon cancer), she accepted her sufferings with deep resignation and total abandonment to the divine will. She passed away on March 23, 1977, in Bagnoli (Naples). Her mortal remains rest in the Santa Croce church, adjacent to the Mother House of the Little Eucharistic Missionaries, located at Via Ilioneo 96 in Naples. The cause for beatification was introduced in the diocese of Pozzuoli. The diocesan inquiry took place from October 31, 1997, to March 23, 2000. The legal validity of this inquiry was recognized by a decree of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on March 23, 2001. The Positio was published in 2007. On December 2, 2014, the Congress of Theological Consultors validated the heroic nature of her virtues.

On April 26, 2016, Pope Francis authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing the heroic virtues of Ilia Corsaro, thereby bestowing upon her the title of Venerable. Her cause is currently underway, awaiting the recognition of a miracle attributed to her intercession to pave the way for her beatification.

The spirituality of Ilia Corsaro is profoundly Eucharistic and Franciscan. The absolute center of her life is Jesus-Eucharist, the "source and summit" of all missionary action. She conceived the mission of her congregation not merely as material assistance, but as a "work of loving regeneration of humanity" (rigenerazione amorosa dell'umanità), aiming to console the afflicted and bring divine love to the most abandoned.

She wrote in her spiritual journal in November 1925: "Jesus does not ask of us, as He does of so many Saints, a work of corporal mercy toward the poor, the sick, but a work of loving regeneration of humanity, of consolation for the afflicted, for those disinherited of affection, for those whom a word of love conquers, transforms, elevates."

Her legacy endures today through the schools, orphanages, and reception centers managed by the Little Eucharistic Missionaries in Italy and throughout the world, notably the "Madre Ilia Corsaro" semi-residential center in Brazil.