Orsola Mezzini

On November 16, 1874, Orsola Mezzini reached a decisive milestone by entering as an assistant and teacher into the "Little Mission for the Deaf-Mute" (Piccola Missione per i Sordomuti). This nascent work was founded in Bologna by two priest brothers, Abbés Giuseppe and Cesare Gualandi, to ensure the human and Christian education of deaf-mute children. Orsola immediately chose Don Cesare Gualandi as her spiritual director. She quickly became the linchpin and the first religious sister of the institute's female branch. Her path of consecration took shape through several profound commitments: in 1877, she made a private vow of chastity; in 1878, she made her solemn promise (or perpetual vow) to dedicate herself entirely to the apostolate for the deaf-mute within the Bolognese institute; in 1884, she formulated a heroic act of supreme abandonment to the fatherhood of God. As a trusted collaborator of the founders, Orsola played a major role in the expansion of the congregation. She actively participated in the founding of new homes for reception and education: in Rome in 1884, in Florence in 1885 (where she resided and worked from 1885 to 1901), and in Giulianova in 1903 or 1907. She also spent several years in Rome, from 1905 to 1909, before returning permanently to Bologna. Within the women's section of the Little Mission, Orsola Mezzini successively assumed the roles of teacher, school director, and superior general. She gave herself without measure to the instruction and social integration of young deaf-mute girls, combining pedagogical rigor with maternal tenderness. On January 29, 1919, she was struck by a stroke (ictus). After several weeks of suffering endured with patience and abandonment, she passed away holily in Bologna on March 23, 1919, just as the First World War had come to an end.

After her death, the memory of Mother Orsola Mezzini was initially preserved in the discretion and silence of her congregation's houses, in accordance with her desire for humility. However, starting in 1986 (the year of the centenary of the death of Father Cesare Gualandi), interest in her life increased and several biographies were published. In 1990, a petition was addressed to Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, Archbishop of Bologna, to open her beatification process. After obtaining the nihil obstat from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on October 9, 1992, the diocesan inquiry was officially opened in Bologna on January 24, 1993. It was solemnly closed on June 11, 1995, at the sanctuary of the Madonna di San Luca. The validity of this inquiry was recognized by a Roman decree on December 11, 1995. The Positio on her heroic virtues was subsequently published in 1999.

On December 9, 2013, Pope Francis authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree recognizing the heroic virtues of Orsola Mezzini. By this act, she was officially declared venerable by the Catholic Church. For her beatification to be pronounced, the official recognition of a miracle attributed to her intercession is required by the Vatican authorities. To this day, no miracle has been the subject of a decree of approval, and her cause for beatification is ongoing.

The spirituality of Orsola Mezzini is deeply Christocentric and marked by an absolute trust in Divine Providence. Her "act of supreme abandonment" of 1884 testifies to her desire to efface herself to let God act through her. She conceived her mission among the deaf not as a simple charitable work, but as a true spiritual apostolate aimed at making the love of God known to those who could not hear it through ordinary means. Today, the legacy of Mother Orsola Mezzini endures through the action of the Sisters of the Little Mission for the Deaf (S.P.M.S.). The congregation, of pontifical right, continues its work of education and accompaniment of deaf and hard-of-hearing people not only in Italy (notably in Bologna, Rome, Florence, Giulianova, and Benevento where a state-recognized school bears her name), but also internationally, particularly in Brazil, the Philippines, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.