April 30, 2014

⛪ Blessed Caterina Sordini (or Mary Magdalene Sordini - Foundress, Perpetual Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament

Blessed Caterina Sordini,
Pray for us !
Saint of the Day : April 30

Born :
 16 April 1770 Porto Santo Stefano, Grosseto, 
Grand Duchy of Tuscany

Died :
 29 November 1824 (aged 54) Rome, Papal States

Attributes :
 Religious habit, Heart, With the Blessed Sacrament

Blessed Mary Magdalene was born as Catherine mutes in (it: Caterina) on 16  April 1770 in Porto Santo Stefano, now in the municipality of Monte Argentario in the province of Grosseto in Tuscany in central Italy. Her parents were Lorenzo and Teresa Sordini Moizzo and she was the fourth of nine children, five of whom grew up. She was baptized the day after the village church, and were named Caterina Francesca Maria Antonia. Her godparents were Bartolomeo and Maria Anna Giovine Schiano. She had a curious and self-conscious nature and was very independent and often rude. Her family was quite wealthy and Catherine grew up in an atmosphere of comfort and prosperity. Yet she was always aware of their parents' deep spirituality. The model that devotion to the sacrament of the altar in her family was and compassionate work that was practiced there, had a lasting influence on Catherine.

Her father was a deeply religious man, holding the Holy Eucharist particularly high. He spent a lot of money and time to ensure that the sacrament could be out for worship. Catherine longed for these special days and found joy in to take its place in the worship of Our Lord.  At this time there was a change in her life. e impulsive child matured into an obedient, diligent, patient and thoughtful youth. In the Lord's presence was Catherine prepared for her vocation.  Her prayer life intensified, she often went to Mass and exercised voluntary penance and "spectral contents of the flesh", and she spent many hours in front of the Lord in worship. During this period she had many mystical experiences.

When Catherine was sixteen years old, her father betrothed her to a suitable young man from Sorrento, Alfonso Capece, who was an expert in maritime trade.But plans for her upcoming wedding, coal thrown when one day she looked in the mirror wearing the jewelry her fiancé had sent her and had a vision of the crucified Christ who said, "You give me up for a carnal creature?".

On the recommendation of his confessor and his father's permission took seventeen year old Catherine's Monastery in Ss Philip and James in Ischia di Castro in the province of Viterbo, which belonged to the Franciscan third order. They were originally devoted to the education of young girls, but in 1795 they went over to the purely contemplative life. After eight months as a postulant, she received on the 26th October 1788 the Franciscan order habit and the name of Maria Magdalena of the Incarnation (Maria Maddalena dell'Incarnazione). Even as a novice she distinguished themselves by their humility, obedience, patience, kindness and gentleness, and her love for God was so great that the tears she could pronounce the name of Jesus.

On 19 February 1789, a year after she entered the convent and while she was still a novice, she was responsible for the work in the refectory and ran and cleared the dining room. She became more and more absorbed in thoughts of the tabernacle in the chapel, which stood on the other side of the wall of the refectory. Suddenly the wall vanished before her eyes and she saw the Sacred Host surrounded by ethereal glory and angels in white robes, carrying a red scapular. Another time when she was sitting with his superior and was engaged in a difficult craft, she was suddenly surrounded by a tremendous light and fell into a miraculous delight. There the Lord gave her the task of founding an order of perpetual adoration so that the sacrament of the altar to be worshiped night and day.

On 28  October 1789, she made her vows.  But after this purified and tested the Lord's servant for many external conditions and internal struggles. Finally, she was almost overwhelmed and fell down in front of a crucifix and begged for help. Then she heard the voice of the Lord's heart assured her that he was with her, and he promised to send her someone who would lead her on the right path and help her with the founding of the order.
This person turned out to be the most pious priest Don Giovanni Antonio Baldeschi in Ischia. But it would take ten years before she met him and only after long hesitation he agreed to be her soul out, once the Holy Father Claudius la Colombière (1641-1982) had helped St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647 - 90) with the spread of devotion to and worship of the Sacred Heart.

The chapter on the 20th April 1802 was sr. Mary Magdalene, all conjectures against elected superior of the monastery in Ischia di Castro, 32 years old. At that time, the monastery of material in a sorry state.  Buildings threatened to collapse and sisters' outfits were worn and tattered.  The warehouse of food was not sufficient for more than a week's consumption and in case was a single small coin. The new superior lost, however, not discouraged, but turned with trustful prayer to the divine providence, and exhorted her sisters to do the same.  God rewarded her confidence to such an extent that by the end of her tenure was the convent to everyone's amazement in the best condition. On 21 November 1803 the monastery was visited by Charles Emmanuel of Savoy VI, King of Sardinia, who spoke about two hours with the abbess.

At this time turned sr. Mary Magdalene in the Lord's command back to his confessor and soul leads Don Giovanni Baldeschi to talk to him about the plans to found an order. But he told her how impossible this was, since she had no funds on hand. But she replied that it was not she, but the Lord himself who wanted to raise funds, so he did not have to be concerned. When writing his father remarked that the new foundation needed a rule and that he did not know of any similar order of rule, she replied that if it was God's will, he would advise her to write such a rule.

Amazed by her confidence in God and full of appreciation of her piety and virtue, he no longer dared to resist, so he explained everything to his bishop, Msgr Flor Into Pierleone of Acquapendente. After careful investigation and full of joy of the initiative commanded the bishop sr.  Maria Magdalena write an order rule. He even promised to do everything he could, and when the rule was finished, he therefore went to Rome to misplace the case to the Pope. In 1807 Pope Pius VII (1800-1823) gave their permission and blessing for the founding of the first house in Rome.

After everything was arranged in the monastery of Ischia di Castro, went  Mary Magdalene on 31 May 1807 with his substitute, sr. Marianna and another young nun, followed by Bishop Pierleone and his confessor, through Viterbo to Rome, where the nuns were still living in an Augustinian monastery Santa Lucia in Selce. But already the 8th July 1807, they could move into their new home, the small monastery of Sant'Anna all Quattro Fontane, who had been a Carmelite convent.After the necessary repairs and improvements of the dilapidated buildings and seedy church was ready, the nuns began under the leadership of Mother Mary Magdalene's eternal adoration of the Sacrament, first privately and behind closed doors at night.

In the middle of September 1807 the sisters had permission from Pope Pius VII from the third Sunday in September (the feast of Mary's pain) to keep the public and solemn worship according to their regulations on all Sundays and feast days as far as their funds managed.  But yet they had not received preliminary approval of the rule and the statutes of its ordenshus from the General Vicariate of Rome despite gjentanne requests.All sorts of difficulties and concerns were raised, and even the Pope's otherwise benevolent Vicar General, Cardinal Somaglia, seemed to share this concern. Again and again, they were also granted Mother Mary Magdalene, but each time she replied, full of confidence: "Our heavenly protectress and mother Maria will also learn to solve these difficulties in its own time. And it happened then too.

Rule and the statutes of the new order of the house was after a rigorous examination approved by the ecclesiastical authorities, and the Cardinal Vicar Somaglia had already had them lying some time in his office for signature, but without signing them. On the feast of Mary's Purification [now Lord's Presentation] on 2 February 1808 he was to go to Capella Papale in the Quirinale Palace, but an invisible force was holding him back at the door of his room, and despite repeated attempts he was unable to leave the room. When he came to think that perhaps his lack of signature on the order of the rule was the reason for this inexplicable event.

When he signed without hesitation rule and the statutes of the Monastery of the eternal worship, and thus he could soon leave the room. That same day he personally brought the gun to rule the monastery Sant'Anna, and he allowed from this day the public and solemn grace and adoration of the Sacrament of the altar under ordensregelens regulations, while he told Mary Magdalene what had happened that morning.

The same day, the 2nd  February 1808, Rome was occupied by the French General Miollis with 12,000 men. They possessed Montecavallo kanonmunningene and directed against the Pope's residence, and from then on, the pope was a prisoner in his own house. The French immediately began to implement its policy of hostility church, and Pope Pius VII and the Cardinals were expelled or taken away as prisoners.Now also in Rome, the monasteries closed and dissolved.  Only a single monastery was spared and overlooked by the enemy: the recently founded monastery of the eternal worship.  In the midst of this storm and without interruption continued where the eternal worship of Jesus in the Sacrament.  But this oasis of peace and uninterrupted prayer would be destroyed.

Mother Mary Magdalene had because of alms, who came from far and near to the foundation of the monastery, corresponded with those of highest rank in society. This circumstance led to a Roman family that was hostile to the new monastery, the community reviewed the French bykommandanten. He undertook a thorough house searches in the monastery, where it was found eventually in grunnleggersken a stack letters from the displaced King Charles Emmanuel VI of Sardinia, from the Spanish ambassador Marquis del Campo to Lisbon and other high-ranking people who had sent alms to the foundation of Abbey and recommended themselves and future tribulations of the community pious intercession. They also found a strange prophecy grunnleggersken had written in Ischia di Castro about current events that are now all had happened as she had said, and these writings were now regarded as highly compromised.

The abbey was dissolved and the nuns were brought back to their individual homes. Their confessor was thrown into a dark cell in Castel Sant'Angelo, while their superior in 1811 was sent into exile, first to Porto Santo Stefano, and then to Florence. There, she was taken into custody by police, and little was missing that she was there sentenced to death. It seemed now as if the new monastery forever worship in Rome was passed into history. But when Emperor Napoleon I (1804-1814: March to June 1815, d. 1821) was overthrown on May 6 April 1814, was the Church and the peoples of Europe freed from the oppressive slavery.

Already on 19 March 1814 Mother Mary Magdalene went back to the monastery of Sant'Anna in Rome with some young graduates from Florence, and the others scattered sisters also gathered again in Rome. On 24  May 1814 did Pope Pius VII returned to Rome in triumph after five years of exile, and the first monastery he recovered, was the monastery of Sant'Anna perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. On 13 July 1814 was their church reopened and the solemn worship could be reopened, much to the delight of a cheering crowd that flocked to. After this, the worship of the sacrament in this place never interrupted, either day or night, although the number of nuns in the beginning was so small that the majority of them were sick of this the-clock service.

Now it was again the community together, but Mother Mary Magdalene had to immediately complete another difficult task, namely to equip the monastery.  With real confidence in God's providence, she went away at this task, and Our Lord rewarded this time her full confidence.  Ecclesiastical and secular, high and low gave alms and gifts in order to show their love for Jesus in the Sacrament. So it was not long before klostergrunnleggelsens substantive future was also assured.

 The only thing now missing, was the papal approval of order rule.It was eventually released after long and thorough investigation on 22 uly 1818 in the bull In Supremo militantis same day delivered the joyful grunnleggersken.  Five months earlier the Pope had given it ordenssuperioren he himself had appointed Msgr Menochio Bartolomeo, Bishop of Augustinian and Porfirio, the mission to clothe grunnleggersken and her sisters the track suit, which was prescribed in the rule. This happened behind closed doors on the third Sunday in September 1817, the feast of Our Painful Mother (Mater Dolorosa), the order's special protector and mother.Those who received the suit, the mother was Mary Magdalene, sr. Marianna, sr. Marianna, sr. Maria Giuseppa og sr. Giuseppe and Maria sr. Serafina,  a former Dominican grunnleggersken who met in Florence. The same bishop also presided at Menochio ikledningen the first ten postulant, this time in a ceremony open to the public on 4 oktober samme år. October the same year. On 12  May 1818 took Mother Mary Magdalene and the other three sisters eternal promises.

On 25 March 1823 death of Bishop Menochio, and the young community got a new superior, Cardinal Annibale della Genga.In the beginning, he showed little sympathetic to the new department, and when Pope Pius VII died on May 20  August 1823 and Cardinal Della Genga was elected the new pope with the name of Leo XII (1823-1929), the sisters feared the worst. MBut Mother Mary Magdalene exhorted them to have confidence in divine providence, and she assured them that the new pope would protect them.It happened then, too, and he appeared very generous towards them and sent every now and then presents to the monastery. Also Popes Gregory XVI (1831-1846) and Blessed Pius IX (1846-78) equipped with the order of many privileges and indulgences.

Through all temptations, persecutions and schisms that this order, "Sisters of the perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament" (Adoratrici Perpetua del Santissimo Sacramento), experienced in their first year, remained the Lord grunnleggersken close and assured her of his grace and love and its wish that she had to remain steadfast. But she survived the formal approval of the rule with only six years. In 1824 she predicted that she would die in the autumn, and she sent word of this to his eleven years younger brother Giovanni. He went in haste to Rome, but when he saw that she was in good health, he took not her words seriously.But at eleven o'clock on the evening of 29  November 1824 death of Mother Mary Magdalene of the Incarnation in Rome, surrounded by his daughters, 54 years and 7 months old. With permission from Pope Leo XII, she became the 30th November buried at the altar of Maria SS. della Speranza i klosterkirken Sant'Anna alle Quattro Fontane ved Quirinalet, della Speranza in the monastery church of Sant'Anna all Quattro Fontane at the Quirinale Palace, where the Pope had his residence.

 After her death, followed by many miraculous answers to prayer at her grave, and the authentic acts attesting to these are held in order's archives in Rome. In 1839, her mortal remains moved to the church of Santa Maria Maddalena a Monte Cavallo, who was the new seat of Adoratrici Perpetua in Rome. Later, the order's headquarters after many difficulties, moved to Via Casaletto 268, which forty years ago, built a new monastery and where grunnlegger skins mortal remains were moved in 1968. On 28  January 2004, they moved to an altar dedicated to her.

On 24  April 2001, her "heroic virtues" recognized by Pope John Paul II (1978-2005) and she got the title Venerabilis ("Renowned"). On 17 December 2007 signed Pope Benedict XVI canonization decree from the Congregation which approved a miracle for her intercession.  She was beatified on Saturday, 3  May 2008 in Rome.  As usual during this pontificate ceremony was not led by the pope himself, but by his personal envoy, in this case, Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins CMF, prefect of the Congregation in the Vatican canonization.  Koncelebrant were Cardinal Camillo Ruini , papal vicar of the Diocese of Rome, around 300 of the order's sisters were present.  Her memorial day is the day of death 29 April.

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