Palma Pasqua Zauli

Within her first congregation, Sister Maria Costanza worked initially as an educator for the young girls at the college run by the nuns. During the First World War, she was sent as a nurse to the military hospital in Bologna to care for wounded soldiers. From February 14, 1916, her health began to decline severely due to a mysterious illness that doctors could not diagnose with certainty. In 1923, her condition worsened to the point that she became completely paralyzed and bedridden. It was during these ten years of suffering and forced immobility that she matured, in prayer and mystical union, the project of founding a new work. She understood that the Lord was calling her to give birth to a contemplative community dedicated to the perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, in order to intercede for the conversion of the world, the sanctification and vocations of priests, as well as for the unity of the Church. With the support of her superior general and the authorization of the Archbishop of Bologna, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Nasalli Rocca, the steps for the foundation began. On August 3, 1933, the new monastery of the Handmaids Adorers of the Most Holy Sacrament (Ancelle Adoratrici del Santissimo Sacramento) was inaugurated in Bologna, at number 70 via Augusto Murri. That day, as she was being transported in a wheelchair into the chapel, Sister Maria Costanza suddenly stood up, cured of her ten-year paralysis, at the precise moment the clock struck six in the evening. On December 7, 1934, she donned the white habit of the new congregation with nine companions. She was appointed superior and founder of the institute. The congregation was canonically erected as an institute of contemplative life in December 1935 (on December 5 or 9, depending on the sources). Mother Maria Costanza led her community with wisdom, guiding her sisters on the path of spiritual immolation and Eucharistic adoration, even through the trials of the Second World War. She passed away in Bologna on April 28, 1954.

After her death in the odor of sanctity, the reputation for piety of Mother Maria Costanza Zauli continued to spread. Her mortal remains were transferred to a chapel located to the left of the entrance of the church of the Servants Adorers monastery in Bologna.

The cause for beatification and canonization was officially opened in the 1980s: * On July 12, 1985, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints granted the nihil obstat for the opening of the inquiry. * On November 30, 1985, Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, Archbishop of Bologna, opened the diocesan process, which was closed on February 8, 1989. * The acts of the diocesan process were validated by Rome on October 17, 1992. * The Positio super vita et virtutibus was submitted in 2002. * On September 30, 2014, the Congress of Theological Consultors gave a favorable opinion on the heroism of her virtues.

On June 20, 2024, Pope Francis received in audience Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, and authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing the heroic virtues of the Servant of God Maria Costanza Zauli (Palma Pasqua Zauli). By this act, she is officially declared Venerable by the Catholic Church. For her beatification to be pronounced, the official recognition of a miracle attributed to her intercession by the Holy See is now required.

The spirituality of the Venerable Maria Costanza Zauli is deeply Eucharistic and Marian. She considered the Blessed Sacrament to be the "sun" of her life and of all Christian existence. Her daily offering was oriented toward spiritual reparation, the unity of the Church, and the spiritual support of priests. She left behind numerous spiritual writings, notably her Diario intimo (Intimate Journal), in which she describes her intimate union with Christ and her devotion to the Virgin Mary, whom she considered the perfect model of the adorer. The legacy of Mother Maria Costanza endures today through the congregation of the Handmaids Adorers of the Most Holy Sacrament, whose motherhouse in Bologna maintains perpetual Eucharistic adoration. The monastery chapel, built in 1937 and housing her tomb, remains a place of prayer and pilgrimage for the faithful.