VERNA, MARIA ANTONIA. – Founder of the Sisters of Charity of the Immaculate Conception of Ivrea, born at Pasquaro (Rivarolo Canavese) on 12 June 1773, died at Rivarolo on 25 December 1838.
Having consecrated herself to God at the age of fifteen, she began to dedicate herself to apostolic work among the children of her native village and later of Rivarolo, where she was also able to gather other young women around her, thus forming the first nucleus of what would eventually become a Congregation. Yet this goal was not achieved until after twenty-two years of trials, setbacks, and abandoned compromises, until on 10 June 1828 she and eight companions received the first habit and she was elected superior. The trials did not cease with this, but the foundress had the consolation of opening in Rivarolo in 1837 the first infant school in Piedmont and in 1838 the second in Turin, and of seeing her religious family and its various activities grow around her. The true flourishing of the new Congregation, however, came somewhat later, but it was ample, rapid, and vigorous, for at fifty years from her death there were more than one hundred houses and about five hundred sisters. The processes and studies for her beatification are underway.
Vermeersch, Arthur – Rittato.