Margherita Occhiena Bosco (1 April 1788 – 25 November 1856) was the mother of

John Bosco John Melchior Bosco ( it, Giovanni Melchiorre Bosco; pms, Gioann Melchior Bòsch; 16 August 181531 January 1888), popularly known as Don Bosco , was an Catholic Church in Italy, Italian Catholic priest, educator, writer and saint of the 19t ...

and worked with the poor and the less fortunate.

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 sovereign ...

proclaimed 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 ...

in 2006.

Biography

Margherita Occhiena was born on 1 April 1788 in

Capriglio Capriglio is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Asti in the Italian region Piedmont, located about southeast of Turin and about northwest of Asti. coordinates = coordinates = coordinates = Capriglio borders the following mun ...

Asti Asti ( , , ; pms, Ast ) is a ''comune'' of 74,348 inhabitants (1-1-2021) located in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy, about east of Turin in the plain of the Tanaro River. It is the capital of the province of Asti and it is deemed t ...

, the sixth of ten children. At the age of 24 she married 27 year old Francesco Bosco, a family friend and widower whose wife and infant daughter had died shortly after childbirth, leaving him with a three-year-old son, Anthony. The family settled in Becchi, a hamlet of

Castelnuovo d'Asti Castelnuovo Don Bosco, formerly Castelnuovo d'Asti (Piedmontese: ''Castelneuv d'Ast'') is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the province of Asti in the Italian region Piedmont, located about east of Turin and about northwest of Asti, on a hill near ...

(today Castelnuovo Don Bosco). Francesco died of pneumonia in May 1817, leaving the 29-year-old Margherita a single mother with three sons: Antonio, Giuseppe and Giovanni (John). Arduino, Fabio. "Venerable Margaret Occhiena", ''Santi e Beati'', November 21, 2006
/ref> A strong woman with clear ideas, Occhiena raised her sons with a regimen of sober living, strict but reasonable. The boys were quite different in temperament. Still, Occhiena made sure she presented them with the beginnings of a Christian education. She gave them the example of faith, wisdom, and courage in facing the difficulties of life. While Antonio served as the bread winner for the family, he also made life difficult for his more studious young brother, John. To keep peace in the family, Occhiena convinced Antonio to let John leave home to continue his schooling. With the support of his mother, John was able to complete his studies and be

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform va ...

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 particu ...

. In 1846, John became ill and Occhiena moved to

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

to care for him. After he recovered, she stayed to assisted him in his work with the poor and abandoned boys who were flocking to the city. For the next ten years she served as a surrogate mother for the hundreds of boys who called her "Mamma Margherita"."Venerable Margherita “Margaret” Occhiena", Salesian Missions
/ref> The school and boys' club called the Oratory continued to expand. Though she herself was illiterate, Occhiena's wisdom and goodness became the model for the "preventive system" that was the basis of Don Bosco's educational approach. Throughout her life, Occhiena put

God In monotheism, monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator deity, creator, and principal object of Faith#Religious views, faith.Richard Swinburne, Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Ted Honderich, Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Ox ...

first and above all, consumed in a life of poverty, prayer and sacrifice. She died at the age of 68 in Turin on 25 November 1856.

Cause of beatification

The cause of

beatification Beatification (from Latin ''beatus'', "blessed" and ''facere'', "to make”) is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their nam ...

for Margherita Occhiena commenced on 7 March 1995 with the declaration of "nihil obstat" (nothing against) by 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 ...

under

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 ...

, thereby declaring her to be a

Servant of God "Servant of God" is a title used in the Catholic Church to indicate that an individual is on the first step toward possible canonization as a saint. Terminology The expression "servant of God" appears nine times in the Bible, the first five in th ...

. On 23 October 2006,

proclaimed 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 ...

, having 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 ...

References

External links

Hagiography Circle
{{DEFAULTSORT:Occhiena, Margherita 1788 births 1856 deaths Venerated Catholics by Pope Benedict XVI 19th-century venerated Christians Italian venerated Catholics People from the Province of Asti