Today's Saint: Blessed Anna Maria Taigi
My first encounter with Blessed Anna Maria Taigi occurred several years ago when a friend had returned from Italy and presented me with a beautiful holy card containing a brief story of Anna's life. A short time later, another friend lent me a book on this holy wife and mother.
I was in awe of this great woman who was physically weak, yet spiritually strong and relied on God to help her through the many trials she faced on a daily basis. I was inspired by her great love for the Lord which she demonstrated in the loving way she treated her family members (especially the difficult ones) and others she encountered in her daily life.
I was also impressed with how effectively she used the gifts that God had given her to help others. For example, she exercised a peculiar influence over individuals and converted many sinners to the faith. Before I get too far ahead of myself, let's start at the beginning of her life.
Blessed Anna Maria Taigi was born in Siena on May 29, 1769 and baptized the following day. Because of financial difficulties, her parents, Louis Giannetti and Mary Masi, moved to Rome when Anna Maria was six years old.
In the Eternal City, Anna Maria attended the school conducted by the Flippini Sisters for two years. Following her schooling, she worked at various occupations--even that of a maid--to financially assist her parents.
When still a young girl, she married Dominic Taigi, a pious young man but of difficult and rather coarse character. Disregarding these defects, Anna Maria was more concerned with his virtue. For the forty-eight years of their married life, she conducted herself with the greatest affability and delicacy, finding ample opportunity to exercise continually the virtues of patience and charity.
Their marriage was characterized by the highest Christian principles. Understanding the profound social and moral values of Christian marriage and considering it, above all, as one of the highest missions from Heaven, Blessed Anna Maria transformed her home into a real sanctuary in which God had the first place. Docile to her husband in every way, she avoided anything which might irritate him and thus disturb the family peace. Serious and hardworking, she saw to it that nothing was lacking to her family. All the money she could spare she devoted to the poor and though not rich, she was very charitable. She was also generous with her time, visiting the sick in hospitals and helping to comfort and assist them in any way she could.
Blessed Anna Maria bore seven children, three of whom died in childhood. Her other children grew to maturity and she provided them with a complete religious and secular education.
Having sought to do God's will from her childhood, Blessed Anna Maria now began to live a life of intense spirituality. She had only one desire: to love God and to serve Him in everything. She was greatly devoted to the Holy Eucharist, to the Most Holy Trinity, to the Infant Jesus, to the Sacred Passion of Our Lord and had the tenderest devotion to our Lady.
Anna Maria Taigi is one of the great mystics of the last century. Yet, she achieved her sanctification by living the ordinary life of wife and mother in a spirit of Christian mission and compliance with God’s will. Her daily attendance at Mass, her total surrender to God, her readiness to help anyone in need, and her being an active member of the Third Order of the Most Holy Trinity were, at the same time, the sources and the fruits of her intense spiritual life. She entered the Third Order of the Most Holy Trinity on December 26, 1808.
God enriched her with many supernatural gifts. The most unusual of these was the apparition of a luminous globe like a miniature sun which shone before her eyes and in which, for forty-seven years, she could see present or future events anywhere in the world as well as the state of grace of individuals, living or dead.
Anna Maria died on June 9, 1837 and was beatified on May 30, 1920. Her incorrupt mortal remains lie in the Chapel of the Madonna in the Basilica of San Crisogono in Rome, Italy.
She is the patron saint of housewives, mothers, and victims of verbal and spousal abuse.
I was in awe of this great woman who was physically weak, yet spiritually strong and relied on God to help her through the many trials she faced on a daily basis. I was inspired by her great love for the Lord which she demonstrated in the loving way she treated her family members (especially the difficult ones) and others she encountered in her daily life.
I was also impressed with how effectively she used the gifts that God had given her to help others. For example, she exercised a peculiar influence over individuals and converted many sinners to the faith. Before I get too far ahead of myself, let's start at the beginning of her life.
Blessed Anna Maria Taigi was born in Siena on May 29, 1769 and baptized the following day. Because of financial difficulties, her parents, Louis Giannetti and Mary Masi, moved to Rome when Anna Maria was six years old.
In the Eternal City, Anna Maria attended the school conducted by the Flippini Sisters for two years. Following her schooling, she worked at various occupations--even that of a maid--to financially assist her parents.
When still a young girl, she married Dominic Taigi, a pious young man but of difficult and rather coarse character. Disregarding these defects, Anna Maria was more concerned with his virtue. For the forty-eight years of their married life, she conducted herself with the greatest affability and delicacy, finding ample opportunity to exercise continually the virtues of patience and charity.
Their marriage was characterized by the highest Christian principles. Understanding the profound social and moral values of Christian marriage and considering it, above all, as one of the highest missions from Heaven, Blessed Anna Maria transformed her home into a real sanctuary in which God had the first place. Docile to her husband in every way, she avoided anything which might irritate him and thus disturb the family peace. Serious and hardworking, she saw to it that nothing was lacking to her family. All the money she could spare she devoted to the poor and though not rich, she was very charitable. She was also generous with her time, visiting the sick in hospitals and helping to comfort and assist them in any way she could.
Blessed Anna Maria bore seven children, three of whom died in childhood. Her other children grew to maturity and she provided them with a complete religious and secular education.
Having sought to do God's will from her childhood, Blessed Anna Maria now began to live a life of intense spirituality. She had only one desire: to love God and to serve Him in everything. She was greatly devoted to the Holy Eucharist, to the Most Holy Trinity, to the Infant Jesus, to the Sacred Passion of Our Lord and had the tenderest devotion to our Lady.
Anna Maria Taigi is one of the great mystics of the last century. Yet, she achieved her sanctification by living the ordinary life of wife and mother in a spirit of Christian mission and compliance with God’s will. Her daily attendance at Mass, her total surrender to God, her readiness to help anyone in need, and her being an active member of the Third Order of the Most Holy Trinity were, at the same time, the sources and the fruits of her intense spiritual life. She entered the Third Order of the Most Holy Trinity on December 26, 1808.
God enriched her with many supernatural gifts. The most unusual of these was the apparition of a luminous globe like a miniature sun which shone before her eyes and in which, for forty-seven years, she could see present or future events anywhere in the world as well as the state of grace of individuals, living or dead.
Anna Maria died on June 9, 1837 and was beatified on May 30, 1920. Her incorrupt mortal remains lie in the Chapel of the Madonna in the Basilica of San Crisogono in Rome, Italy.
She is the patron saint of housewives, mothers, and victims of verbal and spousal abuse.
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