CANOSSA, Maddalena Gabriella, of the marquises of, blessed. — Born in Verona on 1 March 1774, died there on 10 April 1835. Orphaned of her father at five years old; abandoned at seven by her mother, Marchesa Teresa Szlucha, who remarried, at eighteen she attempted to enter the Discalced Carmelites at Conciliano. She dedicated herself to the care of street girls (1799), beginning to gather some of them into a boarding house (1800–1801); then she established a “Canossa Retreat” in a small house purchased near S. Zeno in Oratorio (1802), where she also opened (1803) a charity school. She also tried to live there (1805), but was soon forced to return to her family. In 1808, having obtained from the civil authorities the former monastery of SS. Giuseppe and Fidenzio, in the working-class district of S. Zeno Maggiore (which was later given to her as a gift by Francis I on 30 November 1815), she transferred her first retreat there and established herself there. With her entered, as superior, Leopoldina Naudet (1773–74) along with some companions, who had belonged to a dissolved institute that was intended to be restored. C. and Naudet worked together until November 1816.
To the first outline of her institute of the “Daughters of Charity” in Verona, the Blessed gave its definitive form in Venice (1812–16), where she wrote its rules. Following the model of Venice, she then reformed the community in Verona; and gradually she devoted herself to the foundations in Milan (1816), Bergamo (1820), Trento (1828); and prepared those of Brescia and Cremona, which were established after her death. The aims of the foundress were: instruction and education of the poorest and most abandoned young women; instruction and assistance to women of the lowest class; assistance in Christian doctrine in parishes; visits, assistance, and instruction to the sick in hospitals; internal instruction of young women from the countryside to make them rural schoolmistresses; sometimes also the education of deaf-mutes; for the benefit of the more affluent, the practice of spiritual exercises for ladies in the various seats of the institute. She promoted in various places the union of ladies for visits to hospitals; she also attempted a foundation of “Sons of Charity.” Of noble soul, she inspired the admiration of Bonaparte, and that of the sovereigns of Austria; Pius VII gave her guidance and comfort; Leo-
ne XII approved her constitutions and institute (1828); Pius XI proclaimed the heroism of her virtues and Pius XII beatified her on 7 December 1941.