Genoveffa De Troia

In 1913, her father found a job in Foggia, and the whole family moved there. However, precariousness followed them, and they had to change housing many times (fourteen times during their lives). The family was also severely tested by bereavement: Genoveffa lost her sister Giovina at the age of five, her brother Vittorino at seventeen, and then her brother Attilio in 1918 in a military hospital in Verona, all three taken by pneumonia. Her father died in turn in 1924, leaving her alone with her mother in extreme destitution. In 1925, a decisive encounter marked her life: that of Father Angelico da Sarno, a Capuchin priest who became her spiritual director. He introduced her to Franciscan spirituality. In 1931, Genoveffa joined the Fraternity of Saint Anne of the Third Order of Saint Francis (today the Secular Franciscan Order) in Foggia, and made her profession there on January 2, 1932. Afflicted with Hand-Schüller-Christian disease (a rare and painful form of lipoidosis or granulomatosis), Genoveffa spent the last decades of her life entirely bedridden in her small room on Via Briglia (today Via Genoveffa de Troia) in Foggia. Her body deteriorated progressively, covered with deep wounds that gnawed at her bones and skull. Despite these atrocious sufferings, she transformed her bed of pain into a true altar of offering and apostolate. Her cell became a place of spiritual pilgrimage where many visitors came to seek advice, prayers, and comfort. She showed active charity towards the most destitute, sharing the little she possessed.

Genoveffa De Troia passed away on December 11, 1949, in Foggia, ten days before her sixty-second birthday, surrounded by a great reputation for holiness. On April 25, 1965, her remains were transferred from the municipal cemetery to the Church of the Immaculate (Chiesa dell'Immacolata) in Foggia, maintained by the Capuchin friars, where she now rests. The cause for beatification and canonization was officially opened at the diocesan level in 1958 and concluded in 1967, before being transmitted to Rome to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

After the examination of her virtues and the favorable opinion of the theological consultants on October 29, 1991, and then of the members of the Congregation on February 18, 1992, Pope John Paul II authorized the promulgation of the decree on the heroic nature of her virtues on March 7, 1992. From that date, Genoveffa De Troia was declared venerable. On March 1, 2012, a new canonical recognition of her body was carried out in the presence of the Archbishop of Foggia-Bovino, Mgr. Francesco Pio Tamburrino. On October 14, 2012, her remains were placed in an artistic urn within the Church of the Immaculate in Foggia.

The spirituality of Genoveffa De Troia is centered on intimate union with the crucified Christ through the joyful acceptance of suffering. She considered every new pain or infirmity as a "gift" or a "pearl" offered by God for the redemption of souls. Her attitude toward illness deeply marked her contemporaries, starting with the famous Capuchin saint Padre Pio. Although they never met physically, Padre Pio, informed of her sufferings, described her as a "martyr of suffering" and a "soul of predilection of Jesus." Her legacy is perpetuated in particular through the Genoveffa De Troia Association, officially founded in 1985 (active since 1968), which works in the social and charitable field, particularly with prisoners, young people in difficulty, and marginalized people in the province of Foggia.