Antonia Mesina (21 June 1919 - 17 May 1935) was an Italian

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

and part of

Catholic Action Catholic Action is the name of groups of lay Catholics who advocate for increased Catholic influence on society. They were especially active in the nineteenth century in historically Catholic countries under anti-clerical regimes such as Spain, Ita ...

. Mesina was murdered in mid-1935 after she attempted to fend off a would-be rapist and suffered 74 strikes with a stone before she died.

Life

Antonia Mesina was born on 21 June 1919 as the second of ten children born to the poor policeman Agostino Mesina and Grazia Rubanu. She was

baptized Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...

in the local parish church of Saint Peter. She received her Confirmation on 10 November 1920 and received her

First Communion First Communion is a ceremony in some Christian traditions during which a person of the church first receives the Eucharist. It is most common in many parts of the Latin Church tradition of the Catholic Church, Lutheran Church and Anglican Communi ...

in 1926 from the local bishop. Once she completed her initial education - which spanned a brief period of time - she took over housekeeping at home in order to assist her bedridden mother who suffered from a heart condition. She took care of the household including the care of her siblings as well as cooking and cleaning and washing. Mesina joined

movement in 1929 and became a noted recruiter. Mesina liked to be part of this movement and believed that it "helps one to be good". Mesina set off for

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

one morning with a friend and after that went to gather firewood in mid-1935 when the teenager Giovanni Ignazio Catigu (1916-1937) attacked her and tried to rape her. Her friend screamed and ran off to find help. Mesina managed to escape twice, but on the third attempt was knocked down. Mesina defended herself and was murdered because she resisted his advances and was struck with a rock 74 times. Her remains were examined after her death and it was found that she had not been violated during or after the violent attack. The last blow to her smashed the skull and disfigured her face. Catigu was soon apprehended and on 27 April 1937 sentenced to death; the firing squad executed him on the following 5 August. On 5 October 1935 the Catholic Action member

Armida Barelli Armida Barelli (1 December 1882 – 15 August 1952) was an Italian Roman Catholic who served in the educational field during her life and was also a professed member of the Secular Franciscan Order. Barelli was also the co-founder of the Secular ...

, who had met Mesina once, met with

Pope Pius XI Pope Pius XI ( it, Pio XI), born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti (; 31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939), was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 to his death in February 1939. He was the first sovereign of Vatican City fro ...

and informed him of Mesina's activism and her murder.

Beatification

The beatification process commenced in the

Diocese of Nuoro The Italian Catholic diocese of Nuoro ( la, Dioecesis Nuorensis) is in Sardinia. It is a suffragan of the archdiocese of Cagliari. Historically it was the diocese of Galtellì until 1779, and then the diocese of Galtellì-Nuoro until 1928.

on 17 April 1979 and closed it on 11 March 1985.

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

approved the fact that Mesina had died "in defensum castitatis" on 8 May 1987 and therefore of approved her beatification. He beatified Mesina on 4 October 1987 in

Saint Peter's Square Saint Peter's Square ( la, Forum Sancti Petri, it, Piazza San Pietro ,) is a large plaza located directly in front of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, the papal enclave inside Rome, directly west of the neighborhood (rione) of Borgo. Bot ...

References

External links

Hagiography CircleSaints SQPN
1919 births 1935 deaths 20th-century Roman Catholic martyrs 20th-century venerated Christians 20th-century Italian people Beatifications by Pope John Paul II Roman Catholic child blesseds Italian beatified people Murdered Italian children People from the Province of Nuoro Catholic martyrs Sardinian women {{Italy-saint-stub