MICHELOTTI, ANNA. – Foundress of the Congregation of the Little Servants of the Sacred Heart of Jesus for the Poor Sick, born at Annecy on 25 Aug. 1843, died at Turin on 1 Feb. 1888.
Although the family, which had known prosperity, had fallen into extreme poverty, Anna, still a girl of twelve, began to visit the sick with her mother, to care for and nurse them with all diligence and solicitude. This work of charity marked the orientation of her life; she felt indeed that she was called to consecrate herself entirely to the poor and most abandoned sick, who often cursed society and sometimes even God. The ideal took more stable and ample form in Turin, where she moved in 1871 and founded the new Institute of the Little Servants, taking the name of Giovanna Francesca della Visitazione. The first clothing took place in 1874, the first vows on 2 Oct. 1875. Poverty and hardships, trials and adversities were not lacking; but neither were good vocations, which she not only cultivated and instructed with diligence, but also strongly imbued with her spirit, which aimed at conforming to the virtues of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Even during her lifetime, she saw the Institute spread to various dioceses, accompanied everywhere by abundant graces of conversions. The cause of beatification was introduced on 6 Dec. 1942.