Lucy Filippini, Saint

LUCY FILIPPINI. - B. Jan. 23, 1672 at Corneto (today Tarquinia), d. March 25, 1732 at Montefiascone.

Orphaned of both parents at the age of seven, she was received together with her sister and brother into the family of her maternal uncle Picci Falzacappa and educated in a manner befitting her noble birth. As a young girl she attended the Benedictine monastery of St. Lucia, offering to teach catechism to the girls in the parish. The new bishop of Montefiascone, Cardinal Marco Antonio Barbarigo (v.), in 1688 placed L. F. in the monastery of St. Clare of Montefiascone, which had fallen somewhat into decline, with the intention of using her to reform it. Once the cardinal had become convinced of the urgent need to provide for the religious and civil instruction of girls, after several vain attempts, learning that as early as 1685 the venerable Rosa Venerini had opened free schools for girls at Viterbo, he summoned her to Montefiascone to introduce this excellent work also into his diocese. Thus there arose, between the years 1692-94, under the direction of Rosa, with staff trained by her and with the effective support of the cardinal, the foundation of the girls' schools of Montefiascone, Corneto (Tarquinia), Valentano, Gradoli, Latera, Celleno, Tessenano, Capodimonte, Marta and Pianzano, that is, in almost all the towns of the diocese. Since Rosa Venerini had to return to Viterbo to continue her own work, she proposed to Barbarigo as director of the schools for Montefiascone L. F., who continued, during the cardinal's lifetime, to visit the schools. After the death of Barbarigo (1706), under his successor, Pompilio Bonaventura, the ties between the two Institutes of Viterbo and Montefiascone were dissolved: that of Viterbo remained under the direction of the Jesuit Fathers, that of Montefiascone passed under that of the Pii Operai Fathers, taking on a somewhat different direction and spirit. This differentiation became manifest when L. F. opened her first school at Rome (1707); later forced to withdraw from Rome, she summoned Venerini to replace her; but the latter did not succeed in saving the school (1708), which was closed. The brother of the bishop of Montefiascone, the papal almoner Alessandro Bonaventura, subsequently opened other schools, according to the method of Montefiascone, at Rome and elsewhere, from which there later developed the present Pontifical Institute of the Maestre Pie Filippine (v.), while at Montefiascone the diocesan Institute remained. F., although residing at Montefiascone, continued to direct all the schools. A woman of great virtue, she was beatified by Pius XI in 1926 and canonized in 1930; her body is venerated in the cathedral of Montefiascone; her feast falls on March 25.

Giuseppe Löw