Blessed Anna Maria Rubatto

Blessed Anna Maria Rubatto, also known as Mother Maria Teresa of Jesus, was born into a devout Catholic family on March 27, 1844, in Carmagnola, Italy. She was the eldest of nine children born to Luigi Rubatto and Teresa Rossetto. From her earliest years, Anna Maria exhibited a deep faith and a compassionate heart, traits that would shape her life's journey.

Early Life and Formation

Growing up in Carmagnola, Anna Maria was surrounded by a community rooted in Catholic traditions and values. She received her early education in the faith from her parents and local religious leaders, nurturing her spiritual growth and commitment to serving others.

Vocation and Religious Life

At the age of 24, Anna Maria felt a strong calling to consecrated life and joined the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Cottolengo in Turin. During her time with the Sisters, she dedicated herself wholeheartedly to caring for the sick, the elderly, and the marginalized. Anna Maria's humility, simplicity, and unwavering love for God endeared her to her sisters and to those she served.

Founding of the Sisters of the Holy Cross

As she continued her journey of discernment, Anna Maria felt a deeper calling to establish a new religious congregation dedicated to serving the poor and needy. With the guidance of her spiritual director, Fr. Giovanni Bairo, and the support of like-minded individuals, Anna Maria founded the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross in 1877.

Leadership and Legacy

The Sisters of the Holy Cross embraced a mission of love and service, inspired by the example of Christ's compassion and the teachings of Saint Vincent de Paul. Blessed Anna Maria Rubatto served as the first Superior General of the congregation, providing visionary leadership and guidance to her sisters as they embarked on their mission.

Despite facing numerous challenges and obstacles, including opposition from ecclesiastical authorities and financial difficulties, Blessed Anna Maria remained steadfast in her commitment to her vocation and to the needs of those she served. Under her leadership, the Sisters of the Holy Cross established homes and ministries throughout Italy, providing care and support to countless individuals in need.

Beatification and Legacy

Blessed Anna Maria Rubatto's life was characterized by her selfless dedication to God and to others. Her compassionate heart and unwavering faith inspired all who knew her, earning her widespread admiration and respect. She passed away on August 6, 1904, in Rome, Italy, leaving behind a profound legacy of love, service, and holiness.

In recognition of her exemplary life and virtuous deeds, Blessed Anna Maria Rubatto was beatified by Pope John Paul II on April 20, 2003. Today, she is revered as a model of Christian virtue and a source of inspiration for all who seek to follow Christ's call to love and serve one another with compassion and humility.

Anna Maria went to many parishes in the city to teach catechism to children and she visited the sick in Cottolengo Hospital. She also sought out the poor and attended to the needs of the neglected. Marianna Scoffone died in 1882 and Anna Maria took a brief holiday on the Ligurian coast.

From the letters of Blessed Mary Francis of Jesus
(Letters, 4 vols., Genoa, 1974 ff.)

Prayer, sacrifice, and the will of God

Dear daughters, there is no need for me to repeat it to you: every beginning demands sacrifices and therefore you cannot even imagine the need we have for prayer and divine help; may the Lord then inspire in us what is most fitting and pleasing to him. Divine Providence will not be lacking for us, even in temporal things. But what is more desirable is to be able to begin our mission with the sick and in teaching poor girls, and this will be obtained, I hope, by prayer and sacrifice. We have to pray very much that the Lord make us holy and sacrifice us for the good of souls.

Let us pray! Only prayer and the sacrifices that good souls make will be able to stop the many woes that are flooding the earth … May God keep you fervent in spirit and make you lovers of duty and of sacrifice, for without sacrificing ourselves—let us keep it in mind—no good will ever be done that can call itself truly good.

Attend lovingly and assiduously to what is yours to do. When you are busy, don’t think of so many miseries, but keep the mind centered in God and in what you are doing. This will put the conscience at peace and make the heart content …

Dear daughters, I recommend to you that you see things here below as always coming from the hand of God, so that you can remain at peace in abandonment to Divine Providence. Remember the great saying of our Seraphic Father who, amid fears, in sufferings, and in pains within and without, often repeated: “So great is the good that awaits me that every pain is a delight.”

Do everything for the love of God and you will see that you do not feel the weight of anything. If we all begin by taking up our own cross willingly, we will find ourselves at the summit of the holy mountain without having felt its weight and without having put it off onto others.

It is very true that sometimes a bit of storminess comes to us, but this is not always a matter of harm. We get beaten up a little—this I don’t deny—but this also makes us turn back more often to God who comes to our help, who breaks us out of bad habits, supports us, and strengthens us in the virtues of humility, patience, and charity. Blessed be God who in his goodness does not smite us completely, but only when we have need of purifying ourselves of our many defects …

How sad it is to see the suffering that comes from being without the comfort of our holy religion! When we have worked hard to stand up straight again under the weight of some problem that has come, there comes another that makes us pine for the former … Let us not lose heart in misfortunes! These are in fact our valid passport to heaven, to our true homeland!

Pray and work hard in the field that the Lord has prepared for you; obtain much merit for yourselves, keeping in mind that this life passes quickly and nothing remains before God but the good works done with a right and holy intention. Let us console ourselves with the thought that the one who suffers more will merit more, though only on the condition that our we offer our sufferings to Jesus our Spouse.

Let us procure for ourselves the grace of carrying our difficulties in peace and even to kiss them, for they are mixed with roses. You cannot ask God why. In great afflictions we cannot do other but resign ourselves to the Will of God and to repeat what a certain holy mother foundress said many times: “O Will of God, you are my Paradise.”

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