Elena Da Persico

Elena da Persico was actively involved in the Italian Catholic social movement, particularly in the promotion and defense of women's rights.

In 1901, she began collaborating with the magazine Azione Muliebre (Women's Action), the first Catholic women's periodical in Italy, founded in Milan. In June 1904, she became its director, a position she held until her death. Through this magazine, she disseminated Christian social ideas and encouraged women to become aware of their active role in society and the Church. She opposed a certain secular feminism while firmly asserting the dignity of women, the reduction of working hours, Sunday rest, and access to education. In 1908, she published a manifesto and a program for "true women's interests." She also founded other publications, such as L'Amica delle contadine (The Friend of Peasant Women), published between 1918 and 1930, and created circulating libraries.

Elena collaborated closely with major figures of social Catholicism, notably Blessed Giuseppe Toniolo, whom she met in 1907 during the first Social Week of Italian Catholics in Pistoia. She participated actively in the founding of the Italian Popular Union (Unione Popolare Italiana) and the Catholic Women's Union (Unione femminile cattolica), contributing to the birth of the Union of Catholic Women of Italy (Unione fra le Donne cattoliche d'Italia) on December 8, 1908. In 1910, Cardinal Bartolomeo Bacilieri, Bishop of Verona, affectionately called her "my auxiliary" in recognition of her diocesan dedication. During the First World War, she transformed her villa in Affi into a refuge for soldiers and refugees.

In 1911, during a spiritual retreat in Verona, she received the intuition to found a new form of consecrated life: women totally given to God through the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, but living fully inserted into the world, without a religious habit or mandatory community life, to be the "leaven in the dough." This project first took the form of a private association in 1921. On March 19, 1931, the Bishop of Trent, Msgr. Celestino Endrici, canonically erected the work under the name of the Pious Union (Pio Sodalizio) of the Daughters of the Queen of the Apostles (Figlie della Regina degli Apostoli - F.R.A.). It is one of the very first secular institutes for women recognized by the Church.

Elena da Persico spent the final years of her life in Affi, continuing her work despite old age and illness. In April 1948, deeply weakened but convinced of the importance of women's civic duty in post-war Italy, she published an article titled Tutte in piedi! (All stand up!) and went to the polls on April 18, 1948, for the general elections.

She passed away peacefully on June 28, 1948, in Affi, after having renewed her consecration during Pentecost of the same year.

The diocesan inquiry process into her life and virtues opened in Verona on June 28, 1963, and closed on February 1, 1969. The cause was then transferred to Rome to the Congregation (now Dicastery) for the Causes of Saints.

On July 1, 2014, the ordinary session of the cardinals and bishops of the Dicastery voted unanimously in favor of the heroic nature of her virtues. On July 8, 2014, Pope Francis authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing the heroic virtues of Elena da Persico, thereby conferring upon her the title of Venerable. For her to be proclaimed Blessed, the official recognition of a miracle attributed to her intercession is required. To date, no miracle has been the subject of an official decree, as the cause is still ongoing.

Elena da Persico's spirituality is based on contemplation in action and an intimate union with the Heart of Christ. She conceived of holiness not as a flight from the world, but as an unconditional love of God lived in the heart of daily and social realities. Her spiritual journal contains this guiding phrase: "Keep the lamp lit and death will be a smile." She also summarized her abandonment to the divine will with this maxim: "Neither impatient to precede Him, nor faint-hearted to follow Him" (Né impazienti nel precederLo, né pusillanimi nel seguirLo).

Her legacy endures through the Secular Institute of the Daughters of the Queen of the Apostles (F.R.A.), which received definitive approval of pontifical right on December 8, 1954, by Pope Pius XII, following the promulgation of the apostolic constitution Provida Mater Ecclesia (1947) which gave legal status to secular institutes. Today, the members of the institute continue their mission of discreet and active Christian presence in various countries, notably in Italy, France, England, and Brazil. The Villa Elena da Persico in Affi now houses the foundation that bears her name and perpetuates her memory.