Maria Leonarda Ranixe

Francesca Ranixe was born on June 23, 1796, in Porto Maurizio (now a district of Imperia), in Liguria. She was the daughter of Agostino Ranixe, a shoemaker, and Rosa Corradi, a seamstress, in a family of nine children. Despite the limited resources of her household, she received a careful education and learned the art of cutting and sewing. From the age of 14, she began working as a seamstress. Her spiritual life developed through her membership in five local confraternities, where she learned to pray and began to voluntarily instruct the poor young girls of her city. At the age of 23, she joined the Confraternity of the Sacred Heart of San Remo, already declaring herself a "spouse of Jesus." Her desire to fully embrace religious life materialized when she was offered the opportunity to enter the monastery of the Poor Clares of Porto Maurizio, then threatened with closure, in order to save it by maintaining teaching activities there with a few companions. She took her religious vows there on January 23, 1828, under the name Sister Maria Leonarda, chosen in homage to Saint Leonard of Port Maurice, a famous Franciscan missionary from her hometown, who was beatified shortly before her birth. Inspired by the Holy Spirit and faced with internal disagreements regarding the orientation of the community, Sister Maria Leonarda decided to found a new institute exclusively dedicated to education. On May 6, 1852, she left the original monastery with a few sisters to open a free school in the neighboring convent of the Annunciation. By the autumn of 1852, the establishment was hosting three hundred poor students free of charge. The new congregation of the Poor Clares of the Most Holy Annunciation (Clarisse della Santissima Annunziata) was canonically erected on January 14, 1854, by Msgr. Raffaele Biale, Bishop of Albenga. During the cholera epidemic of 1854-1855, the nuns also dedicated themselves to the sick. In 1860, following the annexation of the County of Nice to France and territorial reorganizations, Porto Maurizio expanded, but the rise of anticlericalism pushed the authorities to requisition the convent of the Annunciation to transform it into a military barracks. On August 14, 1864, the community had to go into exile in Diano Castello. There, Mother Maria Leonarda undertook, with great sacrifices, the construction of a new and vast convent, begun at the beginning of 1870 and completed in 1875. Weakened by illness since 1874, she passed away on May 24, 1875, in Diano Castello, surrounded by a great reputation for holiness.

After her death, the memory of Mother Maria Leonarda remained alive among her sisters and the local populations who benefited from her educational work. The cause for beatification was officially introduced in the Diocese of Albenga-Imperia. The key stages of the examination of her cause by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints include: March 27, 1984 (meeting of historical consultants), 1984 (publication of the Positio super virtutibus), November 29, 1988 (particular congress of theological consultants), and May 2, 1989 (ordinary session of cardinals and bishops).

On May 13, 1989, Pope John Paul II authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing the heroic nature of her virtues, thus conferring upon her the title of Venerable. For her beatification to be pronounced, the Catholic Church requires the official recognition of a miracle attributed to her intercession. The cause is currently underway, under the direction of the postulator, Father Cristiano Massimo Parisi, CP.

The spirituality of Maria Leonarda Ranixe is rooted in the Franciscan tradition of Saint Francis and Saint Clare of Assisi, characterized by evangelical poverty, contemplation, and abandonment to the divine will. Her charism is defined by the acceptance of the mystery of the Incarnation, modeled on the "yes" (the Fiat or Eccomi) of the Virgin Mary at the Annunciation. She was able to combine a life of intense prayer with concrete apostolic service to disadvantaged youth. The founder's legacy was perpetuated for more than a century through the educational works of her congregation, notably in Diano Castello and Diano Marina. Faced with the contemporary crisis of vocations, the Poor Clares of the Holy Annunciation began a discernment process in 2005 to unite with another religious family sharing their sensibility. On November 1, 2020, by canonical decree, the congregation officially merged with the Victim Sisters of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament (Suore Vittime Espiatrici di Gesù Sacramentato), founded by Saint Maria Cristina Brando. This merger allows for the maintenance of the religious presence and the continuation of Mother Maria Leonarda's educational work. A museum dedicated to her, preserving her personal objects, books, and writings, can be visited at the motherhouse in Diano Castello.