Teresa Maria Manetti (3 March 1846 – 23 April 1910), born ''Teresa Adelaide Cesina Manetti'', was an Italian Roman Catholic

religious sister A religious sister (abbreviated ''Sr.'' or Sist.) in the Catholic Church is a woman who has taken public vows in a religious institute dedicated to apostolic works, as distinguished from a nun who lives a cloistered monastic life dedicated to pr ...

and was the founder of the Carmelite Sisters of Saint Teresa. She took the

religious name A religious name is a type of given name bestowed for a religious purposes, and which is generally used in such contexts. Christianity Catholic Church Baptismal name In baptism, Catholic Church, Catholics are given a Christian name, which should ...

''Teresa Maria of the Cross'' when she became a member of the

Third Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel The Third Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, also known as the Lay Carmelites, is a third order of the Carmelite Order of the Ancient Observance, established in 1476 by a bull of Pope Sixtus IV. It is an association of people who choose to live ...

. Teresa Maria of the Cross was beatified in 1986 after the recognition of a miracle attributed to her.

Life

Teresa Maria Manetti was born on 3 March 1846 in

Campi Bisenzio Campi Bisenzio is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Florence in the Italian region Tuscany, located about northwest of Florence. History The word Campi in the municipality's name stems from the fields which are widespread i ...

as the daughter of Salvatore Manetti and Rosa Bigagli. Her brother was Adamo Raffaello. Teresa Maria lived her life in a small village outside of Florence and her father died when she was three. She 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 ...

on 8 May 1859. At the age of eighteen - at the time that she suddenly realized what her vocation was - Teresa Maria gathered a group of women who were all teachers; the group soon became exposed to the writings of the Carmelite

Teresa of Avila Teresa (also Theresa, Therese; french: Thérèse) is a feminine given name. It originates in the Iberian Peninsula in late antiquity. Its derivation is uncertain, it may be derived from Greek θερίζω (''therízō'') "to harvest or rea ...

, and soon enough a devotion to her grew. On 16 July 1876 Teresa Maria joined a group of Carmelite tertiaries, which she joined on 12 July 1888. Following this, Teresa Maria of the Cross started to establish schools in cities surrounding Florence, each with its own Carmelite teachers. The congregation that she founded received approval from

Pope Pius X Pope Pius X ( it, Pio X; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing modernist interpretations of C ...

on 27 February 1904 as the Carmelite Sisters of Saint Teresa. Their mission was to teach children, with an emphasis on orphans. Houses eventually opened in

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

and

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

after the approval was granted. Teresa Maria of the Cross contracted a grave illness in 1908 which intensified until she died on 23 April 1910. Her

relics In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tangi ...

were relocated on 22 April 1912.

Beatification

The cause for beatification commenced in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

in the 1930s despite the formal opening of the cause under

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII ( it, Pio XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (; 2 March 18769 October 1958), was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death in October 1958. Before his e ...

on 30 July 1944.

Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI ( la, Paulus VI; it, Paolo VI; born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, ; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City, Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 to his ...

approved the findings of 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, pa ...

and approved the fact that she had lived a life of

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 ...

. As a result, on 23 May 1975, he declared her to be

Venerable The Venerable (''venerabilis'' in Latin) is a style, a title, or an epithet which is used in some Western Christian churches, or it is a translation of similar terms for clerics in Eastern Orthodoxy and monastics in Buddhism. Christianity Cathol ...

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 a miracle attributed to her intercession on 16 November 1985 and beatified her on 19 October 1986.

References

External links

Hagiography CircleSaints SQPNCarmelite Sisters of Saint Teresa
{{DEFAULTSORT:Manetti, Teresia Maria 1846 births 1910 deaths People from Campi Bisenzio Grand Duchy of Tuscany people Founders of Catholic religious communities 19th-century venerated Christians 20th-century venerated Christians Venerated Carmelites Italian beatified people Beatifications by Pope John Paul II