Armida Barelli

Armida Barelli is a major figure of the 20th-century Italian Catholic laity. Her work is structured around several foundations of national scope: The Young Women of Catholic Action (Gioventù Femminile di Azione Cattolica): In 1917, Cardinal Andrea Carlo Ferrari, Archbishop of Milan, invited her to take charge of the young women's movement. Faced with Marxist propaganda, she founded the first Milanese circles. In September 1918, Pope Benedict XV entrusted her with the mission of extending this work to all of Italy by appointing her national president, a position she would hold until 1946. She traveled tirelessly across the peninsula, structuring a network that would count more than a million members, fostering the emancipation and the spiritual and civic formation of women. The Secular Institute of the Missionaries of the Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ: On November 19, 1919, she founded in Assisi, with Father Agostino Gemelli, a group of consecrated laywomen that would officially become a secular institute in 1948. This pioneering foundation allowed women to live a total consecration to God while remaining fully engaged in the secular world. The Catholic University of the Sacred Heart (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore): Co-founded in 1921 in Milan with Father Gemelli, Ludovico Necchi, and Francesco Olgiati, this university institution benefited from her constant dedication as treasurer. She obtained from Pius XI the institution of the National Day for the Catholic University in 1924 to ensure its funding. The Work of the Kingship (Opera della Regalità): Founded in 1929 with Father Gemelli, this association aimed to promote the liturgical formation of the Christian people, notably by distributing texts of the Mass in Italian long before the Second Vatican Council.

In 1946, Pope Pius XII appointed her Vice President General of Italian Catholic Action. Shortly thereafter, she was struck by a serious and debilitating illness, progressive bulbar paralysis, which gradually deprived her of the power of speech. She lived this trial in a profound spirit of prayer and offering, offering her sufferings for the realization of the Faculty of Medicine of the Catholic University in Rome (the future Gemelli Polyclinic). She passed away on August 15, 1952, the day of the Solemnity of the Assumption, at the family villa in Marzio, in the province of Varese. Initially buried in the cemetery of Marzio, her remains were solemnly transferred on March 8, 1953, to the crypt of the main chapel of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan.

The cause for the beatification of Armida Barelli was opened in 1960 by the Archdiocese of Milan. On June 1, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing the heroic nature of her virtues, declaring her Venerable. The miracle necessary for her beatification was approved by Pope Francis on February 20, 2021. It concerns the unexplained healing of Alice Maggini, a 65-year-old woman from Prato. On May 5, 1989, while riding her bicycle, Alice Maggini was struck by a truck, suffering severe cranial and maxillofacial trauma that left her in a coma. Faced with an extremely grim medical prognosis predicting severe neurological sequelae, her niece, Anna Maria Menici, invoked the intercession of Armida Barelli using a holy card containing a relic. A day of prayer was also organized on May 18, 1989, at the chapel of the Catholic University of Milan. Alice Maggini recovered completely and lastingly, without any sequelae, and led an independent life until her death in 2012. The beatification ceremony was celebrated on April 30, 2022, in the Cathedral of Milan (Duomo), presided over by Cardinal Marcello Semeraro on behalf of Pope Francis. Her liturgical feast is set for November 19, the anniversary of her consecration in 1919.

The spirituality of Armida Barelli is deeply marked by the Franciscan charism and an ardent devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She knew how to promote an innovative model of lay and feminine holiness, anticipating the intuitions of the Second Vatican Council regarding the place of the laity in the Church. By refusing to withdraw into herself, she encouraged women to become aware of their baptismal dignity and to engage actively in the social, cultural, and political life of their country. Her legacy endures today through the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, the Italian Catholic Action, and the Secular Institute of the Missionaries of the Kingship of Christ.