Maria Teresa Camera

The work of Maria Teresa Camera is inseparable from the foundation of the Congregation of the Daughters of Our Lady of Piety (Figlie di Nostra Signora della Pietà). In 1854, during a cholera epidemic in Ovada, Maria Teresa and her companions distinguished themselves through their heroic and free assistance to the sick. In 1856, a priest from Ovada, Father Tito Borgatta, who directed several charitable works, proposed that they settle in premises adjacent to the establishment of the Pious Mothers of Our Lady (Madri Pie). In exchange for this housing, the Teresians helped the Pious Mothers and collaborated in Father Borgatta's works (notably within the Opera Pia San Tito). This period of cohabitation proved difficult for the community, however, as Father Borgatta tended to impose himself as the founder and limited their financial autonomy. Despite these trials, Maria Teresa exhorted her sisters to patience and absolute trust in Providence. The decisive turning point for the community came in 1889 with the appointment of Saint Joseph Marello (Giuseppe Marello) as Bishop of Acqui. Sensitive to their dedication, the bishop, assisted by his vicar general Msgr. Pagella, undertook to canonically structure the group. In 1890, the sisters formed a Pious Union. On March 4, 1892, Msgr. Marello approved the first Constitutions of the Teresians ad experimentum for a period of five years. In May 1893, Maria Teresa Camera and her companions pronounced their first public religious vows (poverty, obedience, and chastity). After the death of the foundress in 1894, the congregation continued its development under the direction of her successor, Sister Angela Bensi. In 1895, the sisters moved to Asti to serve at the Santa Chiara Institute (a hospice for the chronically ill and orphans acquired by Msgr. Marello). In 1898, they established their motherhouse and novitiate there. In December 1923, Msgr. Luigi Spandre, Bishop of Asti, erected the community as a congregation of diocesan right under the name of "Daughters of Piety." In 1931, the congregation officially took the title of "Daughters of Our Lady of Piety." Finally, in 1973, the institute received the pontifical decree of praise (decretum laudis), becoming a congregation of pontifical right.

Maria Teresa Camera spent the final years of her life marked by illness, suffering from physical decline and severe respiratory crises, which she endured in silence and in union with the suffering Christ. She passed away on March 24, 1894, the day of Holy Saturday, in Ovada, at the age of 75. She left behind a reputation for holiness firmly established among the poor and the sick of her region, who affectionately called her the "consoling angel of Ovada." The cause for the beatification and canonization of Maria Teresa Camera was opened at the diocesan level to examine the heroicity of her virtues. After the closure of the diocesan inquiry, the file was transmitted to Rome, to the Congregation (now Dicastery) for the Causes of Saints.

On March 19, 2019, Pope Francis received in audience Cardinal Angelo Becciu, then Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing the heroic virtues of the Servant of God Maria Teresa Camera. By this act, she is officially declared venerable. For her beatification to be pronounced, the official recognition of a miracle attributed to her intercession is required by the Catholic Church.

The spirituality of Maria Teresa Camera is deeply Christocentric and marked by the contemplation of Jesus Crucified, a devotion she particularly nurtured through contact with the spirituality of Saint Paul of the Cross (founder of the Passionists, also a native of Ovada). For her, the service of the poor and the sick was not mere social assistance, but the direct recognition of Christ suffering on the Cross through the most needy members of society. She taught her sisters humility, silence, a spirit of sacrifice, and total abandonment to Divine Providence. Today, the Daughters of Our Lady of Piety continue the work of their founder by dedicating themselves to the education of youth and the assistance of the sick and the elderly. In addition to Italy (where their motherhouse is located in Asti), the sisters are also present in Peru, Colombia, the Philippines, and the Solomon Islands.