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| Beata Elena Aiello, ora pro nobis |
June 19th is the Feast of Beata Elena Aiello, Virgin, Foundress, Mystic and Stigmatic. Born into a pious family on April 10, 1895 in Montalto Uffugo, Cosenza (Calabria), she joined the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood, but was forced to leave before taking her final vows due to her poor health.
Diagnosed with stomach cancer, she was miraculously cured after receiving visions of St. Rita and Our Lord Jesus Christ. On Friday, March 2, 1923, while meditating on the Passion, she received the stigmata, Crown of Thorns, and the bloody sweat of Gethsemane for the first time. She would bear these mystical gifts each Friday of Lent for the rest of her life.
With renewed vigor Blessed Elena returned to the congregation (the date is uncertain) and began her apostolate, offering religious instruction to the local children. Founding a new congregation, the Minim Sisters of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, she also established several institutes for orphans, including a high school for young girls who left the orphanage.
Blessed Elena died on June 19, 1961 in Rome where she had gone to open a new house. Beatified in Cosenza on September 14, 2011, she is invoked against stomach cancer. In celebration, I’m posting a prayer to Beata Elena Aiello in Italian. Evviva Beata Elena Aiello!
Preghiera
Trinità Santa, ti ringraziamo per aver donato alla Chiesa la Beata Elena Aiello, tua serva fedele, segnata nel corpo e nello spirito dalla Passione di Cristo tuo Figlio. Seguendo la via minima del Vangelo ha fatto risplendere il mistero del tuo amore per gli ultimi ed i poveri. Consacrandosi a Te ha confidato unicamente nella tua Provvidenza. Concedici, per sua intercessione, la grazia che imploriamo … e di vederla presto annoverata nel numero dei tuoi Santi. Amen
