Maria Benedetta Frey

At the end of 1861, at the age of 25, the young nun was struck by a progressive paralysis that began in her left leg before spreading to her left arm and spine. She would spend the next fifty-two years of her life entirely immobilized in her bed.

Her physical sufferings were extreme. Due to acute pain, she could not rest her head on pillows, nor keep it upright. With her head falling inertly onto her chest with a constant risk of suffocation, the sisters had to support her forehead using a system of cords and bandages attached to her bed. To this paralysis were added other ailments: a fistula on her arm, a wound on her right heel, frequent bronchitis and pneumonia, and, in the final years of her life, cancer of the intestine.

Despite this total immobility—she could only move her eyes, her tongue, and her right hand—her cell became an exceptional spiritual hearth. By special authorization from the ecclesiastical authority, her room was arranged in such a way as to respect the rules of enclosure while allowing her to receive outside visitors. Pope Pius IX also granted the privilege of having Mass celebrated directly in her cell, facing her bed. It was in this room that baptisms, first communions, confirmations, and even priestly ordinations were sometimes administered.

Sister Maria Benedetta became a sought-after spiritual counselor. Dozens of people—laypeople, seminarians, priests, bishops, and cardinals—crowded at her bedside to solicit her prayers, her advice, and her discernment. Unable to move, she also maintained a vast correspondence, dictating letters of comfort that she invariably signed with the expression "Dalla Croce" (From the Cross).

Sister Maria Benedetta Frey died holily on May 10, 1913, in Viterbo, after receiving the last sacraments and the apostolic blessing of Pope Saint Pius X. Her funeral attracted a huge crowd. She was initially buried in the municipal cemetery of San Lazzaro in Viterbo.

On December 10, 1927, her remains were transferred to the Child Jesus chapel of the Visitation monastery church. On April 23, 1968, a canonical recognition of her body was carried out under the direction of the diocesan bishop, Msgr. Luigi Boccadoro; her body was then discovered intact, although dried and browned.

The ordinary informative process on her reputation for holiness opened in Viterbo on December 26, 1959, and closed on November 3, 1962, after the hearing of 77 witnesses. The legal validity of this process was recognized by a decree of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on November 23, 1984. On June 24, 2014, the Congress of Theological Consultants gave a unanimous favorable opinion on the heroicity of her virtues.

On September 30, 2015, Pope Francis authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree recognizing the heroic nature of her theological and cardinal virtues. Sister Maria Benedetta Frey was thus officially declared venerable.

Her cause for beatification is still ongoing, awaiting the official recognition of a miracle attributed to her intercession.

The spirituality of Maria Benedetta Frey is based on the heroic acceptance of suffering experienced as a configuration to the crucified Christ and an active participation in his work of redemption. Far from sinking into sadness or withdrawal, she always maintained a smiling and peaceful face, testifying to a deep intimate union with God. She liked to repeat in her writings: "Holiness consists only in fulfilling in everything the most holy will of God, in one's own state."

She also nurtured a fervent devotion to the Eucharist and the Child Jesus (the Bambinello), of whom she kept a wax statue facing her bed and to whom she entrusted all the prayer intentions submitted to her.

Among her significant spiritual relationships is her deep friendship with Saint Luigi Orione (Don Orione), who visited her in April 1912. During their meeting, she advised him to have no melancholy and to accept being "like rags in the hands of God" (essere stracci nelle mani di Dio) to let himself be guided by Divine Providence. This formula would deeply mark Don Orione, who drew inspiration from it for the foundation of the female branch of his work, the Little Missionary Sisters of Charity.