Armida Barelli
The story of Armida Barelli
He was born in Milan on 1 December 18882 into an economically well-off family.
On 17 February 1917 she founded the Milanese Catholic Women's Youth, and in 1918[3] Barelli became National President of the Women's Youth, with the task of spreading the movement in all Italian dioceses.
In 1919, in Assisi, she founded, together with Father Gemelli, the Secular Institute of the Missionaries of the Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ, of Franciscan inspiration , which today has about 2400 consecrated women.
In 1921, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore was inaugurated in Milan with the first two faculties (Social Sciences and Philosophy). Armida was one of the founders and immediately became the treasurer of the University; In 1924, she founded the first 'University Day' to raise funds for the university.
In 1929 he founded, again with Gemelli, the Opera della Regalità, with the task of bringing the Catholic laity closer to the liturgy. The importance of this initiative is to be grasped in the fact that it was a far cry from the climate of the Second Vatican Council and, therefore, the laity were given very little space in the liturgical action of the Church.
In 1946 she was appointed Vice-President General of Catholic Action for a three-year term by Pope Pius XII. From 1920 to 1950, despite the hostility of the Fascist regime, she travelled around Italy to promote the Women's Youth, which reached 1,500,000 members, organizing Conferences, Pilgrimages and Social Weeks. In 1946 she was at the forefront of the battle for women's suffrage.
From 1949, in his long illness (he suffered from bulbar paralysis), he lived in a spirit of penance, in prayer and in offering, in particular, for the construction of the Faculty of Medicine and the Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome.
He died in Marzio (VA) on 15 August 1952
"I accept death, any kind that the Lord wills, in full adherence to the divine will, as the last supreme proof of love for the Sacred Heart, in whom I trusted in life and want to trust in death; and as the last supreme prayer for what has been the constant dream in my life: the coming of the Kingdom of Christ here below.
On 17 July 1970 the Archbishop's Curia of Milan opened the diocesan process for his beatification, which after its conclusion continues in Rome at the competent Congregation.
On June 1, 2007 , she was declared Venerable by Pope Benedict XVI , who authorized the decree promulgating her heroic virtues.
On February 20, 2021, Pope Francis recognized a miracle that had occurred through her intercession, paving the way for her beatification. The miracle concerns the healing of a 65-year-old woman, Alice Maggini, who was hit by a truck while traveling by bicycle in Prato on May 5, 1989. The severe concussion sustained as a result of the accident led doctors to diagnose serious neurological consequences. In a scientifically inexplicable way, Alice Maggini was completely cured, resuming her life in total autonomy until her death in 2012.
