Ursuline sister beatified in Italy

October 12, 2026

Sister Maria Ignazia Isacchi (1857-1934), the foundress of the Ursuline Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, was beatified at the Basilica of St. Andrew in Mantova, Italy, on October 10.

“The deepest trait of her spirituality seems to be precisely abandonment to God and the readiness to give herself totally to Him,” Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, preached. “The first poverty, in fact, consists in recognizing that we are not absolute masters of ourselves, in recognizing that everything is a gift of God. It was precisely from this inner poverty, from this heart given to God, that our Blessed drew the strength to love and serve others.”

At his October 11 Angelus address, Pope Leo XIV said:

Between the end of 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century, she devoted herself with courageous charity to the needy and the disadvantaged. May her example rekindle in all of us the desire to be witnesses in the world of the love of the Gospel toward everyone.

Sister Isacchi was declared venerable in 2022. The miracle necessary for beatification took place in 1950: the cure of a young religious sister from her congregation who suffered from tuberculosis and received Viaticum. The nun died in 2018 at the age of 92.

 

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Further information:

• Maria Ignazia Isacchi (nee Angela Caterina) (Dicastero delle Cause dei Santi)
• Angelus (Dicastery for Communication - Vatican Media, 10/11/26)