Carla Ronci

Desirous of dedicating herself entirely to God, Carla expressed her wish to enter the convent in 1955, but met with the refusal of her parents and the reluctance of her parish priest. On February 3, 1958, she left for Scanzorosciate to join the novitiate of the Ursuline Sisters of Gandino. However, her father violently opposed it and forcibly brought her back on March 9, 1958. Faced with this opposition, the superior decided that she should leave conventual religious life, and Carla returned home permanently on May 24, 1958. In 1960, she discovered the secular institute of the "Ancelle Mater Misericordiae" (Servants of the Mother of Mercy), founded in Macerata by Canon Filippo Piccinini. Admitted in 1961, she pronounced her first vows on January 6, 1962, and then her final vows on January 6, 1963. As a consecrated laywoman, she continued to live in Torre Pedrera, working as a seamstress and helping her parents. She deployed an intense apostolic activity in her parish: catechism, liturgy, missionary works, and visits to the poor and the sick. Traveling by scooter, she earned the nickname of the "Saint of the Vespa."

From the moment of her consecration, Carla offered her life and daily sufferings for the sanctification of priests and for priestly vocations. In her diary, she expressed her deep desire to be a "living tabernacle" and to unite herself intimately with the will of God. In April 1969, the first symptoms of lung cancer appeared. Despite intense pain, she faced this trial with a constant smile and a profound inner peace, offering her ordeal for the Church and for priests. Hospitalized on January 21, 1970, at the Sant'Orsola clinic in Bologna, she was later brought back to Rimini, where she passed away peacefully on April 2, 1970, at the age of 33, at the "Villa Maria" clinic.

The reputation of holiness of Carla Ronci spread rapidly after her death, prompting the Diocese of Rimini to introduce her cause for canonization in 1980. The diocesan process was opened on October 14, 1982, and closed on October 14, 1986. The validity of the diocesan inquiry was decreed by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on June 10, 1988. On July 7, 1997, Pope John Paul II promulgated the decree recognizing the heroic nature of her virtues, thus conferring upon her the title of Venerable. Her remains rest today in the parish church of the Beata Vergine del Carmine in Torre Pedrera.

The spirituality of Carla Ronci is characterized by an intimate union with Christ lived in the simplicity of daily life, making her a "contemplative in action." Her spiritual journal (Diario), published after her death, reveals a soul inhabited by a deep and communicative joy. Her legacy remains very much alive, particularly in the Diocese of Rimini where she is presented to young people, alongside Blessed Alberto Marvelli and Blessed Sandra Sabattini, as a model of modern, lay holiness. A primary school in Torre Pedrera bears her name today.