VANNINI, GIUSEPPINA. – Foundress of the Daughters of St Camillus. Born in Rome on 7 July 1859, died there on 23 February 1911.
Orphaned at a tender age, she was taken in at the age of six to the Torlonia orphanage at S. Onofrio, where she remained until she was twenty-one. After several unsuccessful attempts to enter religious life, she finally met the Camillian Fr Luigi Tezza, who suggested to her the idea of founding a new congregation that would follow the Rule of St Camillus de Lellis and imitate his work in aiding the sick, assisting them in hospitals, clinics and at home. Vannini gladly accepted and put the idea into practice, establishing the new institute on 2 February 1892. After a period of extreme poverty spent among the sick, as the number of companions grew, she asked Leo XIII in 1893 for official recognition of her congregation; but since new congregations were not wanted in Rome at that time, she made her vows privately and, welcomed by Bishop Bonomelli in Cremona, opened a house there, while in Rome some of her companions took up the care of a clinic, extending their activity also to defective children. Meanwhile the institute spread beyond Italy, to France, Belgium, Germany and Argentina, and in 1909 it became a regular congregation with simple vows. Vannini, who was preparing to visit the houses in America, was taken a few days before her departure by a serious illness that led her to the grave.