Teresa Solari

Having left the hospital in 1857 with only a few coins in their pockets ("quattro soldi"), Teresa Solari and Antonietta Cervetto settled in Genoa. In September 1863, they resided near the Dominican church of Santa Maria del Castello, then moved to via della Scurreria in the autumn of the same year to welcome their first poor young girls. This was the beginning of the Piccola Casa della Divina Provvidenza (Little House of Divine Providence). The work developed rapidly despite the lack of initial resources. Due to the humidity of the premises, the community moved to the Maddalena district. In 1866, the Archbishop of Genoa authorized the celebration of Mass in the house's chapel. By 1868, the institution was already hosting about a hundred young girls, supervised by twenty mistresses. In 1871, forced to leave their rented accommodation, they acquired a vacation property with a villa near San Giacomo to house all the residents. The Dominican orientation of the work became more defined thanks to the spiritual guidance of Father Vincenzo Vera, O.P., who would lead the institute for more than forty years. In 1869, the Master General of the Order of Preachers, Father Vincent Jandel, visited the house and granted the faculty to establish the Dominican Third Order there. On June 4, 1870, Teresa Solari received the Dominican habit and took the name Sister Domenica Caterina dello Spirito Santo. She made her religious profession on April 30, 1871. In 1874, four of the first orphans taken in took the religious habit in their turn within the nascent congregation, the Dominican Sisters of the Little House of Divine Providence.

Teresa Solari led a life of intense prayer, characterized by a simple faith and absolute trust in Divine Providence. Although illiterate and uneducated, she benefited from singular mystical graces. The spiritual writings she produced under the obedience of her superiors reveal, in particular, mystical colloquies from a distance with Saint Clelia Barbieri (founder of the Minims of the Sorrowful Mother), whom she had never physically met during her lifetime. Subsequent investigations established a perfect correspondence of dates and circumstances between the visions of the two women. Her charity was unwavering. One day, while begging for her orphans, a man slapped her while insulting her. Without losing her composure, she replied: "This is for me, but for my little girls, what will you give me?" ("Questo è per me, ma per le mie bambine che cosa mi dà?"). From 1906, her health declined severely, preventing her from fully governing the community. In January 1907, she received the Viaticum. On February 7, 1907, she wrote her will, designating the Master General of the Dominicans as the universal legatee of her work. She passed away on the evening of Thursday, May 7, 1908, in Genoa, while her sisters were reciting the Litany of the Saints after having sung the Salve Regina.

After her death, Teresa Solari was buried in the Monumental Cemetery of Staglieno in Genoa. Her reputation for holiness grew rapidly among the Genoese population, who came to pray at her grave and left numerous ex-votos there. On September 23, 1909, the Genoa City Council granted her a free perpetual concession in recognition of her charitable work. The cause for beatification and canonization was officially opened at the end of the 20th century. The nihil obstat was granted on September 10, 1999. The diocesan inquiry took place from 2000 to 2006, and its decree of validity was published on April 11, 2008. On December 18, 2025, Pope Leo XIV authorized the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree recognizing the heroic nature of her virtues, thereby conferring upon her the title of Venerable.

The spirituality of Teresa Solari is based on total abandonment to Divine Providence, Marian devotion, and love for the poor. She was able to transform her own childhood sufferings and illness into a source of active compassion for marginalized young girls. On an institutional level, the congregation she founded, the Dominican Sisters of the Little House of Divine Providence, obtained its official aggregation to the Order of Preachers in 1911. In 1990, to ensure the continuity of its mission, the congregation merged with that of the Dominican Sisters of Saint Catherine of Siena (of Albi). Even today, the religious sisters continue Teresa Solari's educational and social work with children and young people in difficulty in Genoa, through residential care facilities and day centers.