Rachelina Ambrosini (2 July 1925 – 10 March 1941) was an

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Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

adolescent. Her childhood was marked with great devotion to the

Blessed Mother Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...

and she was known for her intelligent and gentle disposition to those she came into contact with. But in the 1930s she had a dream in which she was told she would die before she turned sixteen. This came to pass after she died from severe meningitis in 1941. The cause for her beatification opened in 1958 in Benevento and culminated in mid-2012 after

Pope Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the soverei ...

confirmed her

heroic virtue Heroic virtue is a phrase coined by Augustine of Hippo to describe the virtue of early Christian martyrs and used by the Catholic Church. The Greek pagan term hero described a person with possibly superhuman abilities and great goodness, and "it ...

and named her as

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Life

Rachelina Ambrosini was born in mid-1925 as the sole child born to Doctor Alberto Ambrosini (also a landowner) and Filomena Sodrillo in the small Passo di Dentecane village near Pietradefusi in the

Avellino province The Province of Avellino ( it, Provincia di Avellino) is a province in the Campania region of Southern Italy. The area is characterized by numerous small towns and villages scattered across the province; only two towns have a population over 20,0 ...

. Her paternal uncle was a

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in partic ...

. Her

baptism 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 ...

was celebrated on 7 November 1925. In 1929 she was in the garden at her house when she saw the

and ran to tell her mother of this: "You know mamma I saw the Madonna!" Marian devotions came from her mother who oversaw her initial religious formation in her childhood. Ambrosini made her First Communion on 12 June 1932. In 1933 she contracted the measles and recovered from this. In school she told her teacher that in her illness she had a vision of Saint Antonio who healed her before telling her that he would guide her to Heaven upon her death which would happen before she turned sixteen. The girl became distinguished for her great devotion and faith from her childhood and was known to be an outgoing and intelligent child who was gentle and obedient to those around her. In Bari she attended middle school before moving to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

for her high school studies that the nuns oversaw. In 1936 her father suffered from a grave illness to which his daughter offered her own life in exchange for his; her father soon recovered. In 1941 she developed purulent otitis - a severe

ear infection Otitis is a general term for inflammation or infection, inner ear infection, middle ear infection of the ear, in both humans and other animals. When infection is present, it may be viral or bacterial. When inflammation is present due to fluid buil ...

- coupled with severe meningitis for which she was hospitalized for on 26 February. The adolescent also predicted the date of her death. Her death came in a Roman hospital on 10 March 1941 after having received the

Extreme Unction In the Catholic Church, the anointing of the sick, also known as Extreme Unction, is a Catholic sacrament that is administered to a Catholic "who, having reached the age of reason, begins to be in danger due to sickness or old age", except in t ...

. Her remains were later exhumed from her grave in Campanarello and relocated to the Santa Maria e Sant'Alessio church in Venticano on 28 September 1958.

Beatification process

The beatification process opened in Benevento in December 1958 and closed after its investigations concluded in April 1961; during this time a second process was being held concurrent with the informative process from 1959 until 1960. The formal introduction to the cause came on 13 November 1991 after the

Congregation for the Causes of Saints In the Catholic Church, the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, previously named the Congregation for the Causes of Saints (), is the dicastery of the Roman Curia that oversees the complex process that leads to the canonization of saints, pass ...

provided the "

nihil obstat ''Nihil obstat'' (Latin for "nothing hinders" or "nothing stands in the way") is a declaration of no objection that warrants censoring of a book, e.g., Catholic published books, to an initiative, or an appointment. Publishing The phrase ''ni ...

" (nothing against) with legitimized Ambrosini's posthumous title Servant of God. The Benevento diocese held another investigation from 7 December 1991 until 8 April 1995 with the C.C.S. validating the previous processes in Rome on 16 February 1996 before receiving the

Positio In the Catholic Church, a ''positio'' (''Positio super Virtutibus'') is a document or collection of documents used in the process by which a person is declared Venerable, the second of the four steps on the path to canonization as a saint. Des ...

dossier in 2001 for assessment. Theologians discussed and approved the dossier on 19 November 2010 with the cardinal and bishop members of the C.C.S. also approving the cause in their meeting held on 3 April 2012.

titled Ambrosini as

a month later on 10 May after confirming that the teenager had lived a life of

. Her beatification all depends on papal confirmation of a miracle attributed to her intercession. One such case was reported in Benevento where a diocesan process was held to investigate the alleged miracle. The process closed in Benevento on 3 December 2017. The current postulator for this cause is the

Conventual Franciscan The Order of Friars Minor Conventual (OFM Conv) is a male religious fraternity in the Roman Catholic Church that is a branch of the Franciscans. The friars in OFM CONV are also known as Conventual Franciscans, or Minorites. Dating back to ...

friar Raffaele Di Muro.

References

External links

Hagiography Circle

Saints SQPN

Rachelina Ambrosini Foundation

The Real Presence
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ambrosini, Rachelina 1925 births 1941 deaths 20th-century Italian people 20th-century venerated Christians Neurological disease deaths in Lazio Infectious disease deaths in Lazio Deaths from meningitis People from the Province of Avellino Venerated Catholics by Pope Benedict XVI

Life

Beatification process

References

Further reading

External links