Vannini, Giuseppina

VANNINI, GIUSEPPINA. - Foundress of the Daughters of St. Camillus, b. in Rome on 7 July 1859, d. there on 23 Feb. 1911.

Orphaned at a very tender age, she was taken in at the age of 6 into the Torlonia orphanage at S. Onofrio, where she remained until she was 21. After various fruitless attempts to embrace the religious life, she finally met the Camillian Father 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 activity in bringing relief to the sick, assisting them in hospitals, in clinics and at home. Vannini gladly welcomed and carried out the idea, beginning the new Institute on 2 Feb. 1892. After a period of extreme poverty spent among the sick, as the number of her companions grew, she asked Leo XIII in 1893 for the official recognition of her Congregation; but having failed to obtain it, because at that moment new congregations were not wanted in Rome, she pronounced her vows privately and, having been received kindly in Cremona by Msgr. Bonomelli, she opened her house there, while in Rome some of her companions took up the care of the sick in a clinic, extending their activity also to defective children. Meanwhile the institution spread also outside Italy, into 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 struck a few days before her departure by a serious illness, which carried her to the grave.

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