Teresa Grillo Michel

Teresa overcame her depression through prayer, the support of her cousin Msgr. Prelli, and reading the biography of Saint Joseph-Benedict Cottolengo. She welcomed the destitute into her palace, which she sold in 1893 to found the "Little Shelter of Divine Providence." Having entered the Third Order of Saint Francis, she officially founded the Congregation of the Little Sisters of Divine Providence on January 8, 1899, with eight collaborators, under the authorization of Msgr. Giuseppe Capecci. The institute expanded rapidly in Italy, then in Brazil starting in 1900 and in Argentina in 1927 at the request of Saint Luigi Orione. Teresa made six trips to Latin America.

After her death on January 25, 1944, her cause for canonization opened on April 16, 1953, at the initiative of Bishop Giuseppe Gagnor. On July 6, 1985, Pope John Paul II declared her Venerable. A miracle concerning the unexplained healing of a young boy in 1964 in Brazil (for which the diocesan inquiry took place in 1966 in Caratinga) was officially recognized by decree on December 18, 1997.

Teresa Grillo Michel was beatified by Pope John Paul II on May 24, 1998, in Turin, in the Piazza Vittorio Veneto. Her liturgical memorial is set for January 25 in the Roman Martyrology, while her congregation and the Diocese of Alessandria celebrate her feast on January 23, the anniversary of her entry into the Third Order of Saint Francis.

Teresa's spirituality rests on abandonment to Divine Providence, love for the poor, and Eucharistic adoration. She placed the monstrance on the habit of her sisters. She exhorted her sisters to charity with the phrase "Amate, amate, amate!" and compared their vocation to a public fountain. At her death, the institute had numerous houses in Italy, Brazil, and Argentina, and has since established itself in Asia, notably in India.