St. Paola Elisabetta Cerioli

Rebroadcast of the long-running radio program, "The Ave Maria Hour," a presentation of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement. www.AtonementFriars.org

St. Paola Elisabetta was born Costanza Cerioli in 1816 in Soncino, Italy, the last of 16 children born into a noble family. A frail child, she lived at home until she was 11 years old, when she was sent off to school in Bergamo, where she learned to depend on God and to find her comfort in him.

At age 19, she married a 59-year-old widower, Gaetano Busecchi. Her difficult marriage lasted 19 years. Three of her four children died prematurely. The fourth, Carlo, lived only to age 16 and died the same year as her husband.

Costanza, now 38, began to visit and assist the sick and to share her belongings with the poor and orphans. In 1856, she took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Young women asked to join her, forming the Sisters of the Holy Family. Costanza took the name Sister Paola Elisabetta. Mother Paola’s her special care was to form her religious sons and daughters to love and educate the neglected and lost ones under their care. She died on December 24, 1865.