MICHELOTTI, ANNA. – Foundress of the Congregation of the Little Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus for the poor sick; born in Annecy on 25 August 1843, died in Turin on 1 February 1888.
Although the family, which had known prosperity, had fallen into extreme poverty, Anna, still only twelve years old, began visiting the sick with her mother, assisting and caring for them with the utmost diligence and solicitude. This charitable work marked the direction of her life; she felt, in fact, that she was called to devote herself entirely to the poor and most abandoned sick, who often cursed society and at times even God. The ideal was realized in a still more stable and extensive manner in Turin, where she settled in 1871 and founded the new Institute of the Little Handmaids, taking the name Giovanna Francesca della Visitazione. The first receptions of the habit took place in 1874, and the first vows on 2 October 1875. Poverty and hardship, tribulations and adversity were not lacking; nor were there beautiful vocations, which she not only cultivated and instructed with diligence, but also imbued deeply with her spirit, which sought to conform itself to the virtues of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. While she was still alive, she saw the Institute spread through various dioceses, everywhere accompanied by abundant graces of conversion. The cause of beatification was introduced on 6 December 1942.