Blessed Elisabetta Renzi

Chronology of the Life of Elisabetta >

1786, Birth of Elisabetta Renzi in Saludecio, Italy to Giambattista Renzi and Vittoria Boni.
She was baptized the day after her birth, in the parish Church of Saludecio.  Her baptism is recorded in the parish registry and it remains there in the Church’s archives. Her brother says of Elisabetta’s childhood,
“Even as a child, Elisabetta opened herself up to silence and prayer; she lived in the comforts of ther birth family as a ray of light shining on pure gold; she did not aquire beauty from the wealth around her, but everything precios around her. She herself made beautiful with her great goodness and sweetness.”

1807, Enters the Convent of Augustinians at Pietrarubbia located in Urbino district at the age of 21.  It was at this monastery that Elisabetta had her first experience of monastic life. 

1810, Convent at Pietrarubbia closed as a result of the storm of the Nopoleonic revolution. Elisabetta and the other religious were expelled from the convent.  She returned to the home of her parents to wait for the time when she could fulfill her goal.  Elisabetta accepted everything with a peaceful spirit, and did not lose hope or let her heart be disturbed.  She trusted that everything turns out well for those who love and seek God.

1824, Elisabetta goes to the Conservatory at Coriano which was founded by Father Giacomo Gabellini at the invitation of Father Corbucci.  He encouraged her to exploer the possibility that God wanted for her to care for others, perhaps through teaching.  He said to her,” Your vocation is to be an educator.” On April 29, 1824, Elisabettta suggested to Father Gabelline to consolidate with Canossian Sisters in other to give the institution a more stable future.

1828, Elisabetta becomes directress of the Conservatory when it’s future seemed very uncertain. She later purchased the property.  She improved the reputation of the Conservatory, which was damaged by the Masons.  In order to achieve this, she chose a deep spiritual life as the foundation for the community.
 
1829, Elisabetta writes a rule with the title: “Rule of Life that is Prescribed for The Poor of the Crucified.” In addition she is asked to assume the direction of a day school and a small boarding school that had already been founded in 1825.  She accepted only because of her desire to be of help to the young souls.

1839, Canonical erection of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows.  Elisabetta Renzi and ten of her companions recieved the religious habit.

1846, Giuseppina Renzi, Mother Elisabetta’s niece comes to Coriano as a boarding student and became a sister in the Congregation of The Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows.

1859, Elisabetta suddenly felt a loss of strength; doctors diagnosed a progressive weakening, stomach ache, and sore throat which were so severe.  However, after a lengthy study of her sickness, she was diagosed with tuberculosis of the larynx. On August 14, 1859, the ever of the Assumption of Mary, she received communion for the last time.  At 8:00 am, Elisabetta seemed to the dozing off, and then she opened her eyses and whispered, ” I see. . . I see. . . I see”, then she passed.

1965, Congregatiion begins the process for the beatification of Mother Elisabetta Renzi after it was given a miracle of a miraculous healing of Sr. Agostina Galli, OLS.

1988, Elisabetta declared Venerable

1989, Beatification of Mother Elisabetta was held on June 18, 1989, in St. Peter’s Basilica.

The Spirituality of Mother Elisabetta >

If some of the sayings of Mother Elisabetta collected in this volume seem to be “hard words” for us today, it is because it is sometimes hard for us to see them in context. Mother Elisabetta, like all of us, was molded by her time and by her own life experiences, and both of these lie deeply embedded in all she says.

Every age has a spiritual climate or atmosphere which is so pervasive that it is hardly noticed by those who live in it, but which can seem very alien to those who live in succeeding ages, with their own characteristic attitudes. The Church at the time of Mother Elisabetta was reacting against the cold rationalism of the preceding age, and awakening to a more affective spirituality, a spirituality of the heart rather than of the intellect. There was a renewed emphasis on the Eucharist as a channel of grace, putting the individual in intimate, loving contact with God. Connected with this growing desire for intimacy with God, there was a new flowering of devotion to the humanity of Christ, focused on his Passion, the place where his humanity shows itself most vulnerable, where it most intensely shows his love, and most urgently calls forth ours. There was also a renewal of Marian devotion, which so often goes hand in hand with a devotion to Christ’s humanity. All of these were key elements, not just of nineteenth century spirituality, but in the spirituality and devotional practices of Mother Elisabetta herself.

Mother Elisabetta’s own experience could, in a way, be said to have validated this spirituality. When, as a young woman, she longed only to give herself wholly to God in contemplative religious life, the convents were suddenly closed and she was sent home to pass years in an ambivalent situation, trying to live a deeply spiritual life amid all the distractions imposed on her by the ordinary social life of her noble and wealthy family. Here she meditated often on the cross, and came to see her own sufferings as a share in the passion of Christ, to be offered in union with his own; it is not the suffering itself she came to love, but the suffering as an experience of intimate, loving union with Jesus. Her life after she went to Coriano was marked by illness, disappointments, and struggle against many who opposed her good work for one reason or another, and she saw all these sufferings as a continuing participation in the passion of Christ, who also suffered physical pain, opposition to his work, and rejection.

Living her suffering in this way, in union with that of Christ, made it a source of great spiritual joy, for as she said, “It is gratifying to give when you love.” Mother Elisabetta’s attitude toward suffering was then not a matter of exalting suffering for its own sake, as might seem to be the case from some of her expressions, but was a spirituality of absolute, all-consuming love, that gives everything, without reserve, not because it is demanded as a duty, but because that is what love does. That is the way the saints suffer, and not to see that is to miss seeing what Elisabetta is really saying, not just with her words, but with her whole life.

The Church can never set aside either the cross or the resurrection, but it looks more intently first at one, then at the other. In Mother Elisabetta’s time, the Church was looking at the cross; it lived, as it were, the Passion present with the glory of resurrection yet to come, or, as Mother Elisabetta expressed it, “The ‘Alleluia’ dwells beyond Calvary.” Between her time and ours, the Church has turned its gaze the other way, toward the other side of the mystery; we live in an ambiance of resurrection present, with the Passion in the background of the past. The slogan of Mother Elisabetta’s age was St. Paul’s “I am crucified with Christ”. Our slogan would more nearly be the one that was popular not so long ago: “We are a resurrection people”. The Church, however, from its long experience of God and of human life, affirms that both spiritualities, that of the cross and that of the resurrection, are valid and can be paths to holiness. For us to reject one of them out of hand as incompatible with our “modern enlightened age” is to shut our hands to half of the spiritual wealth of our faith; it is, instead, our responsibility to be open to it and to learn from it, even if we cannot fully enter into it.

Mother Elisabetta and The Religious Life >

If some of Mother Elisabetta’ sayings about suffering seem to be “hard words” to us, this is probably even truer of some of the things she has to say about detachment, obedience, and community life in general. These sometimes seem stern and harsh, not at all what we would expect from the woman who, on the witness of all who knew her, was filled with tender love and great compassion for the human weaknesses of those around her, who, like so many of the saints, may have been severe with herself, but was gentleness and kindness incarnate to everyone else. It seems that sometimes she scarcely takes our humanity into account at all.

To understand these passages that may sound hard as rock, absolute, inflexible, intolerant of human weakness or imperfection, we must see them in their context, and keep in mind their source. Almost all of these come from rules written for the religious community, and so are of a legislative nature. A law cannot of itself take account of exceptions and extenuating circumstances; it states how a thing ideally should be. It is up to those responsible for administering the law to make exceptions whenever circumstances render them appropriate. The religious is expected to desire and work toward spiritual perfection and holiness, and the rules all look toward that state. But the road to that perfection is a journey and a struggle, and no one knew better than Mother Elisabetta how much pain that degree of self-mastery can cost. To offset the seeming hardness of the rules she wrote, we have the universal testimony of those who knew her that she was firm when it was necessary, because the way of perfection is not easy, but at the same time she had the greatest understanding and compassion for those on the way, and knew that imperfections must be rooted out gently if the whole growth is not to be destroyed.

It is also good to keep in mind that the spirituality of religious life differs from age to age, just as does the general spirituality of the Church. What is more, religious life is a ministry, and styles of ministry must change as those ministered to change. Consequently, some things that may have been appropriate and legitimate expectations of religious in her day may no longer be so today, because of our changing spiritual and cultural environments. Mother Elisabetta herself recognized this. She began with the rule of the Poor of the Crucified, but, as the Congregation began to expand and take shape through the years and to find its place and work in the Church, she provided rules of a very different character, because the early one no longer suited their life and work. Elisabetta would readily agree that although the principles of religious life do not change, the details of how they are lived out must be flexible, responsive to the needs of the Church in the time and place that God has given to us. So as we look at these excerpts from the rules we need to recognize that they come from a spiritual and cultural milieu that differs in many ways from ours, but also be sensitive to the unalterable, universally valid demands they are based on – that all religious must strive for perfection in living out their vows and the great commandments of love of God and neighbor.

Prayer for the Intercession of Blessed Elisabetta Renzi >

Our Mother left us with these words, ” Goodbye, beloved daughters; be generous with the Lord.  I carry you all in my heart and bless you . . . we will see each other up there in heaven . . .  up there .. . and from up there I will tellyou again to be grateful to the Lord.  Let your faithfulness be your thanksgiving, since the more you receive, the more God will ask of you.” With great confidence, we know that from up there she intercedes for us as we live out our yes each day. It is our tradition that in all our communities we pray this prayer to our foundress each day at morning prayer that she may bless our mission.

Lord Jesus Christ, you chose Blessed Elisabetta Renzi
to show the world the joy of knowing, loving, and following you.
Fill my heart with a love as great as hers for all people,
and with an ardent desire to proclaim everywhere the good news
of salvation, so that all may come to know, love, and follow you,
the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Through her intercession,
if it is your will, grant me the special grace that
I humbly ask of you, who live and reign forever. Amen.

Prayer of Mother Elisabetta to Obtain a Spirit of Zeal >

O Divine Heart of Jesus, teach me and open to me the
way to touch the hearts of sinners and the hearts of the
children whom I must lead to you.

O Lord, I am consumed with ardent desire to bring these souls
to the refuge of your own loving Heart. But if you do not inflame my own,
if you with your Divine grace do not set my words on fire,
all my labor will be in vain. Grant this, O most kind Heart of Jesus,
for the love that you bear towards the souls you have redeemed.
What did you not do to welcome sinners? Remember the words you
spoke to your servant Mary Margaret Alacoque: that those who love
your Heart would be fishers of men. O most loving Jesus,
with the help of your grace I will always love you.
Give me your great gentleness in warning the children
of dangers to their eternal salvation.

May, mother of mercy, pray for me. My guardian angels and all the saints,
pray that I may be zealous, labor effectively, an be filled with charity,
and that the children entrusted to me many be fervent and may praise
and give  thanks to your most loving Heart forever. Amen.