Maria Carmelina Leone

The life of Maria Carmelina Leone was brief and simple, yet marked by an extraordinary devotion to the most destitute and by the teaching of the faith. Within Catholic Action and her parish, she strove to make Christ known and to comfort marginalized people. In 1938, her life changed when she was struck by a serious pulmonary illness (pleurisy followed by tuberculosis). She was hospitalized at the 'Ingrassia' sanatorium in Palermo. It was in this place of suffering that her spiritual greatness was fully revealed. Far from rebelling, she offered her pains in union with the crucified Christ and strove to console other patients. Her inner joy and serenity in the face of suffering deeply impressed the doctors and nursing staff. A striking episode of her hospitalization illustrates her charity: on May 22, 1939, Prince Umberto of Savoy (the future King of Italy), while visiting the sanatorium, stopped at her bedside and offered her a sum of 100 lire. Despite the attempts of those around her to dissuade her, the young girl insisted on immediately sharing this sum with her roommates. Sensing her end approaching, she announced to her parents, eight days in advance, the exact date of her death. She passed away peacefully on October 1, 1940, at the age of 17, in the family home on Via Piave in Palermo, with a crucifix clutched in her hands.

From the moment of her death, the reputation of holiness of Maria Carmelina Leone spread rapidly in Palermo and beyond. Popular fervor affectionately called her the "little saint" (la piccola santa). Many faithful reported having obtained graces and healings through her intercession. Faced with this surge of devotion, the Archdiocese of Palermo opened her beatification process. The diocesan inquiry (cognitional process) began on January 29, 1982, and concluded solemnly on July 11, 1986, at the church of Casa Professa. At the end of this phase, her mortal remains were transferred from the old Capuchin cemetery to the parish church of Santa Caterina da Siena, located in the Bonagia district of Palermo, where they now rest in a sarcophagus.

The file for the cause was then transmitted to Rome, to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. On April 8, 1997, Pope John Paul II signed the decree recognizing the heroic nature of her theological and cardinal virtues, officially conferring upon her the title of Venerable. For her beatification to be pronounced, the official recognition of a miracle attributed to her intercession by the Holy See is required. Although many favors and unexplained healings are attributed by popular devotion to the young girl, no miracle has yet been the subject of a formal decree of approval by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.

The spirituality of Maria Carmelina Leone rests on evangelical simplicity, the joyful acceptance of suffering offered for the love of Christ, and active charity towards one's neighbor. Cardinal Salvatore De Giorgi, former Archbishop of Palermo, summarized her holiness by emphasizing that she did nothing extraordinary, but that she lived the daily realities of her life as a young girl, a catechist, and a sick person in an extraordinary way. Her legacy remains very much alive in Palermo. The house of her paternal grandparents, located at number 5 via Sant'Isidoro alla Guilla, has been transformed into the "Casa Museo dei Ricordi" (House-Museum of Memories). This place of memory preserves her personal objects, notably her wrought-iron bed, her Singer sewing machine, and her prayer notebooks, and continues to attract many pilgrims. On October 3, 2010, during his pastoral visit to Palermo, Pope Benedict XVI cited Maria Carmelina Leone as an example to young Sicilians, presenting her alongside Blessed Chiara Badano and Blessed Pina Suriano as a model of luminous faith transmitted within the family and lived in the heart of trial.