I would like for all of my being to be silent and for everything in me to adore Him, to thus penetrate every more deeply into Him and to be filled with Him, and thus, to be able to give Him to those poor souls who do not know the gift of God! Oh, that I may remain always in the great presence of God. (Blessed Elisabetta Renzi)
God gave Mother Elisabetta a very important duty: that of being his faithful witness, to be that small seed that , thrown on the ground, will die and bring forth fruit.
She lived our her mission on as “doing something, departing for far away lands, or doing heroic actions in the eyes of men” ; she was an instrument in God’s hand, she let Him guide her, and she was attentive to the real needs of the place wher God called her to work. God and God’s glory we her only means and strength for her apostolic work.
Following in the footsteps of our Mother, we entrust ourselves each day to the maternal guidance of Our Lady of Our Lady of Sorrows, our patroness, assured tha that Lord blesses our stepes in the measure in which we live our our call. As daughters of Elisabetta, rooted in Christ, crucified and risen, we continure to weave our history making the gift of God present to all.
May Mary our most sorrowful mother, virgin of fidelity and hope, contemplated by Mother Elisabetta, guide and sustain us that we continue to profess our hope in the crucified and risen Lord.
Saludecio 1786 – 1791
Elisabetta was born in Saludecio on November 19, 1786. Her parents were Giambattista Renzi and Countess Vittoria Boni from Urbino. From their union, seven children were born: the first four were born in Saludecio, and the other three were born in Mondaino where the family has moved to in 1791. Maria Elisabetta was the second of the children after her older brother Giancarlo. She was named after her paternal grandmother and her maternal aunt, both deceased by the time Elisabetta was born.
The day following her birth, she was baptized in the parish Church of St. Blase. Her baptism is recorded in the parish registry and it remains there today in the church’s archives. Her native home, today belongs to someone else, is on the main street of Saludecio, Via Roma, and it is marked with a commemorative plaque of Elisabetta.
The village of Saludecio, remains for the Sisters of Our Lady Sorrows a true “cradle of their soul” to which we return again and again to re-discover and revitalize our religious roots.
Mondaino 1791 -1806
Blessed Elisabetta moved with her family to Mondaino when she was five years old. It was more convinient for Giambattista, Elisabetta’s father to do his work as an administrator in Mondaino where his property and the monastery of the Poor Clares that he administered were located. This move enabled Elisabetta to grown up in a very religious environment and to take advantage of the presence of the prestigious religious institutions in the area.
Around the age of nine, Elisabetta entered the monastery of the Poor Clares as a boarding student and soon made her first communion. Soon after, she made her first Communion and of that glorious day, we have this recount: ” After she had offered her deepest love and thanksgiving to Jesus, she kissed her parents who were deeply moved and respectfully greeted the abbess, kissing her dress. Then with radiant joy, she told them that form this time, her tongue and her soul were worthy of reverence, because they had been sanctified by the touch of Jesus, the soul’s holy spouse.”
Thougt still very young she loved to be alone, in meditation, to spend her time with her beloved Jesus. She desired so much to grow in virtue that it is said whe chose one of her friends with whom she would be in competition to see who could love Jesus more.
Pietrarubbia 1807 – 1810
A time to contemplate the Father’s face.
In 1807, at the age of 21, Elisabetta chose to enter the monastey of Augustinians at Pietrarubbia. She felt immediately the strength coming from her vocation. This is apparent from a letter she wrote to her father, in which she expressed her strong desire to give her whole life to God, for the glory of God, in the house of God.
Elisabetta blossomed in her relationship with the Lord and she was very happy. The letter she wrote to the Abbess of the monastery at Mondaino testifies to this. She emptied herself to be filled only by God, so that she would be able to give Him to those poor souls who did not know the gift of God. In the walls of the monastery, God prepared Elisabetta for the apostolic mission taht he would call her to later.
In 1810, the Napoleonic suppression closed the monastery and it was never reopened because its location was very disadvantageous and the basic necessities of life wer lacking. Because of historical events, after such happy experiences, Elisabetta too had to abandon the monastery and return to live with her family in 1810; this was a very painful moment for her. She reacted with an attitude of a saint and accepted it as a gift, convinced that sufferings is the only way to follow God’s Divine will. ” The cross! It gave peace to the world, and I love it! A suffering no accepted is no longer a suffering; I do not complain.” Elisabetta continued to live a monastic lifestyle.
Elisabatta’s letter to her father
” I will remain in this cloister just as in the past the serf remained on the land he cultivated... confitemini Domino, quoniam bunus, quoniam in saeculum misericofia ejus: give praise to the Lord for He is good, for His mercy is everlasting.
Other than God nothing is important, nothing, nothing in the world. If there is wealth, it vanishes; if there is health, it is lost; if there is reputation, it is attacked; ah, they will dissolve, they will perish.
Oh, father, permit me to remain here, awaiting the reward of good works, of good thoughts, of good desires for God, who alone is good, takes into consideration even our good desires. God offers me so much! Don’t you want me to cultivate his friendship at once, to take into account at once all the great promises that He has made to me?
Dearest father, I tell you: I have a great desire to do good and to pray constantly, in the house of God, for the glory of God, or rather, for the greater glory of God.”
Elisabetta’s letter to the Abess
Imagine that you see me , the worthless but fortunate Elisabetta, in the small cell that is so dear to me, the sanctuary made only for Jesus and myself, and then you will easily imagine the happy hours that I pass there with my Delight.
How empty our cells and cloisters would be if He himself did not fill them! However, everything speaks to us of Him, because we bear Him within us, and our lives are a foretaste of paradise.
The cell is such a sacred place! It is an intimate sanctuary destined for Him and His bride, and it is good for them to be there together.
I would like for all of my being to be silent and for everything in me to adore Him, to thus penetrate every more deeply into Him and to be filled with Him, and thus, to be able to give Him to those poor souls who do not know the gift of God! Oh, that I may remain always in the great presence of God.
Mondaino 1810-1824
The forced return to her family and the experience of trial and failure
In 1810, after having enjoyed three yearts of convent life, Elisabetta was forced to abandon the monastery and returen to her paternal home because of the Napoleonic invasion. For her this was a time of suffering, but also a time that prepared her even more for the trials that she would eventually endure. For a time she continued to live a monastic lifestyle, accepting this forced change in her life with a great spirit of faith and of abandonment to God’s will. But seh was certain of her vocation to a more perfect life and was trustingly waiting for the Lord to provide her with signs and the means to accomplish it.
In the meantime, new events contributed to making this period of waiting even more painful. In 1813, her only sister Dorotea died at the age of 20. This death deeply affected her parents, her brother, and especially Elisabetta herself – she had lost her confidantte and her moral support. Moreover, being the only daughter left, she must have felt a greater responsibility to be close to her parents. It was also at this time taht she developed a certain ailment and a general weakness that, according to the eulogy at her funeral, would accompany her for the rest of her life.
These trials could have been the cause of her loosing to some degree her initial fervor, adapting more to the common style of life in society. She abandoned her domestic and “voluntary solitude” and gave herself more that usual to recreation and conversation with companions of her own age. But in her heart she felt distaste for this way of living and in 1818 she wrote:” My poor life. How much penance you need to do? How many tears you need to shed?”
Coriano 1824
Maria Elisabetta recognized the will of God in the words of Father Vitale Corbucci, her spiritual director, who assured her that the Lord was calling her in order to entrust her with the mission of giving a “good education to young women,” and he directed her to the Conservatory in Coriano that was opened in 1818 by Father Giacomo Gibellini, the pastor of the nearby village of Montetauro.
Elisabetta was 37 years old when she went to Coriano in the afternoon of April 29, 1824.
The plan of merging the Conservatory of Coriano with the Congregation of the Daughters of Charity, founded in Verona by Saint Maddalena of Canossa, did not materialize.
The bishop of Rimini, His Excellency Ottavio of Conti Zollio, ” called Miss Renzi and entrusted to her the good management of the house where he made her the superior.”
Elisabetta chose for the small community the name of ” The Poor of the Crucified,” and in 1828 wrote some rules for their spiritual and community life, which were compiled in the Rule of the Poor of the Crucified.
In 1830, the Poor of the Crucified, by Pontifical Decree, changed their name to “Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows.”
On August 26, 1839, in the parish church of Coriano, the bishop of Rimini, His Excellency Francesco Gentilini, declared the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows canonically erected. On August 29, 1839, in the parish church, Maria Elisabetta with ten companions received the religious habit and made her first profession.
Later, Mother Elisabetta opened other communities in Sogliano al Rubicone, Roncofreddo, Faenza, Cotignola, Savignano di Romagna and Mondaino.
Motherhouse Chapel >
This small church is the heart of the Motherhouse where Blessed Elisabetta moved by the Holy Spirit, founded the religious order of The Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows. The Church was consecrated on May 31, 1825, and it is dedicated to Mary, Most Sorrowful. As we can see from old pictures, the chapel had an ornate altar which has been destroyed, and at the center, there was the statue of the Sorrowful Mother.
The gate above the altar and the opening through which the sisters received communion on the right side of the altar witness to the fact that the Poor of the Crucified prayed and attended Mass in the choir behind the altar. On the left side of the church close to the ceiling, there is a gate which opens into the room of Mother Elisabetta. Through that gate, she could see the tabernacle; and from there, she could pray day and night. In that room, Mother Elisabetta died on August 14, 1859, surrounded by her companions. Her body was buried in a tomb under the pavement of this church. Today, we can see the exact place, right before the steps leading to the altar where the cross.
After about 30 years, her body was exhumed by her niece, Mother Giuseppina Renzi, and placed in a marble urn (now the urn is on the second floor of the motherhouse) which was placed in a niche on the right side of the church, and stayed there until Beatification. Now there is a commemorative stone in the niche where the urn was located.
In the Chapel on the right side of the church, we can admire the venerated image of “Mary of the People,” a fresco which was on the front of the farmhouse of Doctor Patrignani of Coriano. When he was near his death, he begged that the fresco be placed in the church of the Conservatory. In detaching it from the wall, the worker dropped it, and it broke into several pieces to the point that it could not be put together.
Mother Elisabetta, however, picked up the pieces in which the fresco had been broken and put them together; and no one could see where it had been broken. The people of Coriano received many graces going with faith to the Blessed Mother, and invoke her still today under the title of ” Virgin of All Graces”
The chapel on the left side of the church is dedicated to Blessed Elisabetta Renzi. On the top of the metal urn where her remains are kept, the coat of arms of the Renzi family is engraved; and on the marble below is the seal of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows with the motto ” Ardere et Lucere” (“to burn and to light”)
This has been the mission of Blessed Elisabetta Renzi. This is the mission of each Sister of Our Lady of Sorrows throughout the world: to burn with love for the Lord and to be so filled with Him that we are able to give Him to our brothers and sisters.
