Eleonora Foresti

In 1919, Eleonora met Padre Pio of Pietrelcina in San Giovanni Rotondo. Encouraged by the latter, who helped her draft the first rules, she founded on December 6, 1920, in Reggio Emilia, a work dedicated to reparatory Eucharistic adoration and the teaching of the catechism. On November 19, 1921, she received the religious habit under the name of Sister Maria Francesca of the Blessed Sacrament. The community, initially called "Adorer Sisters Victims of the Divine Heart," settled successively in Riccione and then in Pisa. Aggregated to the Capuchins in 1942, the congregation received diocesan approval on December 8, 1943, under the name of Franciscan Adorer Sisters. During the Second World War, the community took refuge at Villa Foresti in Maggio di Ozzano Emilia. On October 4, 1944, despite a violent bombardment that destroyed part of the villa, the monstrance containing the Blessed Sacrament remained intact and the entire community emerged unharmed.

After the war, Mother Maria Francesca's health declined rapidly. Afflicted by a serious illness, she spent her final years bedridden at Villa Foresti, offering her sufferings in union with the Passion of Christ, her eyes fixed on a reproduction of the Holy Shroud of Turin. She died on November 12, 1953. Her cause for beatification opened in the Diocese of Bologna, with a diocesan inquiry conducted from May 21, 1989, to October 18, 1997, the validity of which was decreed by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on February 26, 1999.

On November 8, 2023, Pope Francis authorized the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree recognizing the heroic virtues of the Servant of God Maria Francesca Foresti, thereby declaring her venerable. Although a typo in the official bulletin of the Holy See Press Office erroneously mentioned the birth year 1898, the official documents of the Acta Apostolicae Sedis and the diocesan archives confirm her birth in 1878.

The charism of the Franciscan Adorer Sisters combines contemplation and action, centered on reparatory Eucharistic adoration and the education of children. Mother Maria Francesca considered herself a "victim soul" offering herself to make reparation for the outrages committed against the Eucharist. Today, the congregation continues its mission from its motherhouse in Maggio di Ozzano Emilia, where the Venerable rests in the oratory of Saints Philip and James. The sisters dedicate themselves to perpetual adoration, the teaching of the catechism, and the management of nursery schools. In June 2025, a statue of the Venerable was inaugurated at the motherhouse.