CATERINA di SANTA ROSA. – In the world Costanza Troiani, born in Giuliano di Roma on 9 February 1813. The victim of a family tragedy, at the age of six she was confined to the monastery of the Poor Clares at Ferentino, where at fifteen she donned the monastic habit and, for more than 30 years, worked actively in the orphanage and in the monastery’s charitable works.
Enthused by the deeds of the canon Battista Olivieri in Egypt for the redemption of the little black girls, and encouraged by Fr Giuseppe da S. Remo, of the Friars Minor, she departed for Egypt with five other nuns, arriving there on 11 September 1859. In 1868 she founded the institute Franciscan Missionaries of Egypt (v.). She died in Cairo on 6 May 1887. During 28 years of missionary life and work for the salvation of souls, her patience and strength of spirit shone forth, united with a manly tenacity of purpose. The cause for her beatification is in progress.