Luigia Tincani

The heart of Luigia Tincani's work rests on an innovative intuition: to evangelize culture and society from within, by inserting oneself directly into the structures of the secular public school system.

On April 30, 1917, she gathered a group of Catholic teachers and laid the foundations for the Union of Saint Catherine of Siena of the Missionaries of the School (Unione Santa Caterina da Siena delle Missionarie della Scuola). This congregation of Dominican tertiaries presented a revolutionary feature for the time: the sisters did not wear a distinctive religious habit and led their professional lives side-by-side with their contemporaries in public schools, in order to more easily reach young people and those distant from the Church. In 1924, the Union was officially established in Gubbio, and Pope Pius XI added the mention "of the Missionaries of the School" to emphasize its apostolic specificity. In 1950, Pope Pius XII appointed Luigia Tincani as Superior General for life of the institute.

At the same time, Luigia Tincani perceived the urgency of providing solid university and theological training to teaching nuns. In 1939, with the support of Cardinal Giuseppe Pizzardo, she founded in Rome the Istituto Universitario Pareggiato di Magistero "Maria Santissima Assunta". Initially reserved for nuns, this institute gradually opened to lay students before becoming, in 1989, the Libera Università Maria Santissima Assunta (LUMSA), one of the most prestigious private universities in Italy. Luigia Tincani is thus recognized as the only woman in Italy to have founded a university.

In recognition of her major action for education, the Italian Ministry of Public Instruction awarded her in 1952 the Gold Medal of the Benemeriti of school, culture, and art.

The life of Luigia Tincani was a constant search for truth through study and teaching, experienced as a true act of intellectual charity. She dedicated a filial devotion to Saint Catherine of Siena, from whom she drew inspiration to guide her action in the Church.

During the 1950s, after suffering a severe heart attack, she had to slow down her public activities and retired to the Villa Ave Maria, located on the Via Appia Antica in Rome. It was from this place of silence that she continued to lead her congregation and follow with fervor the great ecclesial events, notably the Second Vatican Council, whose orientations she welcomed with immense joy.

Her final years were marked by profound physical suffering, caused by an incurable illness (cancer) and almost total blindness, which she endured with unwavering faith and constant spiritual joy. She passed away in Rome on May 31, 1976, at the age of 87. Upon learning of her death, Pope Paul VI summarized her life with these simple words: "She loved!" (Ha amato!).

Her body rests in the Roman basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, directly opposite the tomb of her patron saint and teacher, Saint Catherine of Siena.

The cause for the canonization of Luigia Tincani was officially opened by the Vicariate of Rome on December 5, 1987. The diocesan inquiry into her life and virtues was solemnly concluded on July 6, 2000.

On June 27, 2011, Pope Benedict XVI authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree recognizing the heroic nature of her virtues. Since that date, Luigia Tincani has been officially declared Venerable by the Catholic Church.

The spirituality of Luigia Tincani is rooted in the Dominican tradition of the search for truth (caritas veritatis). For her, study is not a simple intellectual exercise, but a path to sanctification and a "feast of the spirit." She exhorted her sisters to consider teaching not as a profession, but as a sacred mission: "Consider the souls of your students as something holy, a good that God has entrusted to you and for which you are responsible only before God alone."

Her legacy continues today through the Union of Saint Catherine of Siena, whose communities are present in Italy, but also in India and Pakistan, where Luigia Tincani herself had sent the first missionaries as early as the late 1940s. The LUMSA University in Rome also preserves the spirit of its founder by promoting a Christian humanism open to the dialogue between faith and reason.

In January 2025, on the occasion of the centenary of the foundation of the Union, Pope Francis paid tribute to the Venerable Luigia Tincani, recalling the three pillars she bequeathed to her spiritual daughters: the constant search for holiness, a solid theological and professional preparation, and a lifestyle characterized by kindness and affability toward all.