STARACE, COSTANZA. - In religion Sister Maria Maddalena della Passione, foundress of the Suore Compassioniste serve di Maria, b. at Castellammare di Stabia on 5 Sept. 1845, d. at Scanzano (diocese of Castellammare) on 13 Dec. 1921.
Longing for religious life, she took the habit (1866) of the Terziarie dei Servi di Maria, while remaining at home until she came to know God’s will more fully. The bishop of Stabia took advantage of this for the good of the diocese, inviting her to establish and direct a Pia unione of Figlie di Maria and to teach the catechism to girls; later she also directed an Association, dedicated to s. Angela Merici, of young women who led a religious life in the world, and a home for orphan girls. The young Figlie di Maria who assisted her wished likewise to take the habit of the Terziarie dei Servi di Maria, and the bishop bestowed not only the habit but also canonical establishment, thus forming the new Congregation of the Compassioniste, of which
he elected the S. superior (16 July 1869). The purpose of the Institute was, in compassion for the sufferings of Jesus and Mary, also to have compassion for those of one’s neighbor in all the latter’s needs of soul and body; it therefore established works of civil, moral, and religious education and of labor. The tribulations inflicted upon her by the devil, the mockery, persecutions, and exceedingly painful illnesses that reduced her to a single wound, refined her heroic virtue and drew effective protection upon all the works of the foundress, who had the joy of receiving the decree of praise for her Institute in 1900.