Maria Teresa Lega

At the Fognano college, only young girls from wealthy families were admitted, which deeply saddened Sister Maria Teresa. She felt a divine inspiration to found a work dedicated to the poor and abandoned girls of the street, in order to offer them an education and protect them from moral dangers. After a long period of prayer, discernment, and interior trials, she left the monastery of Fognano on June 6, 1871, to go to Modigliana. On July 16, 1871, with the support of Pope Pius IX and the Bishop of Modigliana, Msgr. Leonardo Giannotti, she founded the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family (commonly called the Istituto Lega or Franciscan Sisters of the Holy Family). The institute's purpose was to welcome orphans and poor young girls, to teach them a trade, and to ensure them a Christian education, by fostering the communion of goods between the wealthy students and the most destitute. The institute received the pontifical decree of praise on June 12, 1888, under the pontificate of Leo XIII. It was aggregated to the Order of Friars Minor on August 23, 1918, and its constitutions were definitively approved by the Holy See on April 18, 1939. Today, the congregation, whose motherhouse is located in Cesena, is also present in Colombia and Mozambique.

Sister Maria Teresa Lega dedicated the remainder of her life to the development of her work and to the guidance of her sisters and the children. She died on January 27, 1890, in Cesena, at the age of 78. Her mortal remains were first interred in the family tomb in Brisighella, then transferred to the chapel of the motherhouse in Modigliana. In November 2022, following the closure of the Modigliana motherhouse due to a decline in vocations, her funeral urn was brought back to Brisighella and placed in the chapel of the Fraternity of the Istituto Lega Sacra Famiglia.

The cause for the beatification and canonization of Maria Teresa Lega was officially opened at the diocesan level and concluded on April 20, 1990. The file was then transmitted to Rome to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. On June 25, 1996, Pope John Paul II promulgated the decree recognizing the heroic nature of her virtues, thus conferring upon her the title of Venerable. For her beatification to be pronounced, the official recognition of a miracle attributed to her intercession is required.

The spirituality of the Venerable Maria Teresa Lega rests on the contemplation of the crucified Christ and the Eucharist, sources of her boundless charity. Her apostolate is articulated around two key concepts: Redemption and Education. For her, redemption is a free gift from God that must be shared through education, by restoring the divine image and likeness in every human being, especially in the poorest and the excluded. She leaves to her spiritual daughters the mandate to imitate the ardent love of the Heart of Jesus for the salvation of souls.