Maddalena Girelli

Bishop Girolamo Verzeri discerned in the initiative of the Girelli sisters a providential resurgence of the spirit of the Company of Saint Ursula (Compagnia di Sant'Orsola), founded in Brescia in 1535 by Saint Angela Merici. This company, which allowed women to live a secular consecration in the midst of the world, had been civilly suppressed by Napoleon in 1810, although it had never been abolished on a canonical level.

On June 13, 1866, by an official decree, Bishop Verzeri restored the ancient Company of Saint Ursula in Brescia. On July 29, 1866, Maddalena, her sister Elisabetta, and about sixty companions solemnly committed themselves to living according to the Rule of Saint Angela Merici. Maddalena Girelli was appointed superior of the Company, while Elisabetta assumed the role of mistress of novices and wrote several works of spiritual formation. Father Giuseppe Chiarini became its ecclesiastical superior.

Under Maddalena's leadership, the Company experienced remarkable growth and multiplied its charitable and educational works: - House of Saint Angela Merici: The sisters acquired the historic 16th-century house that had belonged to Saint Angela Merici, located near the parish church of Saint Afra (Sant'Afra, today the Sanctuary of Saint Angela), where the body of the foundress rests. - Brescia Boarding School: They opened a boarding school for students in their own family home, located on Via Cairoli in Brescia. - Convitto of Marone: In 1878, they had a boarding house (convitto) built in Marone to welcome and protect young female workers employed in the silk mills. - Institute of Carpenedolo: In 1885, they founded an institute for orphans in Carpenedolo (known as Casa Girelli), the direct management of which was entrusted to Marta Corradini. - Asylum of Borgo Poncarale: They opened a nursery school (asilo infantile) in Borgo Poncarale. - Orphanage of Pontevico: They actively supported the Angelini girls' orphanage in Pontevico. - Casa Sant'Angela: In 1899, they made a personal property available to their fellow sisters to organize meetings and spiritual retreats.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Company had more than 3,000 members, radiating throughout the diocese of Brescia to support parishes, teach catechism, make liturgical vestments, and care for the sick.

Maddalena Girelli led a life of intense contemplation and mortification, while assuming her heavy responsibilities as superior. At the request of her spiritual director, she wrote a diary that testifies to her intimate union with Christ and her apostolic zeal. She practiced rigorous asceticism, sometimes wearing a hair shirt (which she discreetly called her "arnese") with the authorization of her confessor.

She was also a reference figure for other holy souls in the region. For example, she welcomed and guided the future Saint Geltrude Comensoli, who first dedicated herself within the Company of Saint Ursula in 1867 before founding her own institute.

In her final years, weakened by illness, Maddalena remained a model of patience and prayer in her home in Brescia. It was in her sickroom that the young priest Giovanni Battista Montini (the future Pope Paul VI), ordained in 1920, came to celebrate one of his very first Masses. Maddalena passed away peacefully in Brescia on March 7, 1923.

The cause for the beatification of Maddalena Girelli was introduced in the Diocese of Brescia. After obtaining the nihil obstat decree on August 5, 1976, the cognitive process regarding the heroic nature of her virtues was officially opened on May 5, 1977.

On July 3, 1998, in the Consistory Hall at the Vatican, Pope John Paul II promulgated the decree recognizing the heroic nature of the Christian virtues of Maddalena Girelli (as well as those of her sister Elisabetta), thereby conferring upon her the title of Venerable.

The spirituality of Maddalena Girelli is based on consecrated secularity: living the gift of self to God fully while remaining inserted into the daily realities of the world, without a distinctive habit or enclosure. This model, inherited directly from Saint Angela Merici, anticipates by nearly a century the official recognition of secular institutes by the Church (notably through the constitution Provida Mater Ecclesia in 1947). Her legacy continues today through the Secular Institute of the Company of Saint Ursula (Daughters of Saint Angela Merici of Brescia). Furthermore, several local institutions still bear her name, such as the Casa Girelli Foundation in Carpenedolo and the Sorelle Girelli nursery school in Borgo Poncarale. Pope Paul VI expressed his deep admiration for the Girelli sisters on several occasions. During a mass celebrated on August 27, 1966, for the Daughters of Saint Angela, he recalled with emotion the exceptional virtues of these "incomparable sisters" and the memory of the mass he had celebrated at Maddalena's bedside.