MARIA CLOTILDE of SAVOIA-BONAPARTE. - Daughter of Vittorio Emanuele II and of Maria Adelaide of Austria, b. in Torino on 2 March 1843, d. at Moncalieri (Torino) on 25 June 1911.
Sought in marriage, at the age of fifteen, by the forty-year-old prince Girolamo Napoleone, she freely submitted to the sacrifice imposed by reasons of state and by the Franco-Sardinian alliance, although she knew that she had nothing in common with him in feelings or ideas. Thus becoming a French princess, she knew how to maintain her rank nobly in Paris, though with great reserve, wholly devoted to the education of her three children: Vittorio, Luigi Napoleone, and Maria Letizia. When the Napoleonic dynasty fell (1870), she did not wish to flee; but when she decided to depart, she left the city with head held high, amid the respectful greetings of the people. Having withdrawn to Switzerland, to the castle of Prangis (Nyon), she remained there until 1878, when the difference in principles and convictions imposed upon her honour and conscience separation from her husband. She retired to Piedmont, to the castle of Moncalieri, devoting herself entirely to prayer and works of charity, hailed by the people as “the saint of Moncalieri.” She hastened to Rome in 1891 to attend her husband in his final days, when he had fully returned to God. She had been a Dominican tertiary since 1871, and is buried at Superga.