ZILERI DAL VERME, LUCREZIA. - Prioress general of the Ursulines of the Sacred Heart of Parma, in the world Drusilla, b. at Parma on 1 Aug. 1839, d. there on 3 Aug. 1923.
Educated in the city college of the Ladies Ursulines, founded in 1575 under the name of Virgins of St. Ursula by Maria Vittoria Masi, she did not delay in giving her name to their Institute, entering it in 1858 and devoting herself diligently to the various offices entrusted to her, which gradually brought her to the position of prioress general in 1886. Since the Institute, founded three centuries earlier, no longer adapted, as it was, to the new needs, indeed urgencies, of the times, Z. sought to strengthen ever more its spirit and to bring it to the state of a true religious congregation. For this purpose she drew up new Rules, preserving of the old ones as much as still suited the times, and had the joy of seeing them definitively approved in 1899. Of these she later gave an ample commentary, published afterwards in 1910. In the meantime the houses and the religious had gone on increasing in number (Milan, Modena, Colecchio) and Z. watched over the formation of all of them in a profound interior life, centered in devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus; and she overcame with prudent energy the difficulties that the troubled times did not tire of stirring up. To Z. is due the institution of the Marian Congregation among the young women and the Work of the Teachers, offering these the occasion of closed retreats, of weekly conferences on religion, prelude to the Work of the Higher School of Religion, instituted in 1908 by Bishop Guido Conforti and entrusted in good part to the care of the Ursulines.
Bibliography
Celestina Teutore