Rome (Italy). On 5 January 2023, there is the 150th anniversary of the birth of the Venerable Suor Laura Meozzi, Daughter of Mary Help of Christians, pioneer in Poland, born in Florence on 5 January 1873, and declared Venerable on 27 June 2011 by Pope Benedict XVI.
On 5 January 2023 at 19:00 (Italian time), the animation group of FMA Holiness sponsored by the General Secretariat of the FMA Institute, in collaboration with the Provinces of Our Lady of Jasna Góra (PLJ), Mary Help of Christians (PLA), Mother Magdalene Morano (ISI), Our Lady of the Last Supper (ILS), Mary Help of Christians (IPI), invites participate in the prayer of the Rosary in live streaming, on the YouTube Channel of the Polish Province PLJ.
The prayer will be led by the Communities of Florence, Nizza Monferrato, Catania, in Italy, and Pogrzebien in Poland, in Italian and Polish. The setting of the houses known and inhabited by Mother Laura will allow the participants to enter the places most significant to her. The main intention of the Rosary, in addition to the particular intentions of each Mystery, is the promotion of the cause of beatification of Mother Laura Meozzi.
Baptized three days after her birth in the Church of St. Mary of the Flowers, Laura belongs to a wealthy family that gives her every attention and educates her in the Christian faith. After moving to Livorno in 1877, the Meozzi family moved to Rome for economic reasons. From 1880 to 1889, with her sister Rita, she was welcomed into Sacred Heart School by the Dorothea Sisters founded by St. Paola Frassinetti, sister of that Fr. Giuseppe Frassinetti who was a friend of Fr. Pestarino.
Laura receives her First Communion at the age of 12 in 1885. Since then, her love for Jesus became more and more intense. The young woman thinks that God is calling her to a contemplative Institute and she confides this intuition to her confessor in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Rome. The Salesian of Don Bosco initially proposed a Carmelite monastery to her, but later, after careful consideration, he advised her instead to wait. Subsequently, he proposed the FMA Institute to her and she, without any objection, adhered because she knew some FMA she had met at the Oratory in via Marghera.
The Institute is not yet well known in Rome, since the first seven Sister had arrived from Nizza Monferrato (AT) only on 5 December 1891, with the task of dedicating themselves to the wardrobe of the Salesian Institute and the oratory for the girls. Even her sister Rita, to whom Laura confides her intention, joins in the request for consent from her parents. Thus, on 31 July 1895, they began their Postulancy in Nizza Monferrato. On 17 April 1898, they made their first profession in the hands of the Superior General, Mother Caterina Daghero.
After a few years spent in Piedmont and Liguria, Laura was sent to Sicily: Alì Marina, Catania, Nunziata. “Be mothers first, teachers second,” she reminded the Sisters. 1922, the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the Institute, marked a turning point in her life. She was chosen to head the missionary expedition and start the FMA presence in Poland.
Even in extreme poverty, trusting in Providence, she opens Houses and starts works of various kinds: lodgings for orphaned and abandoned children; then schools and workshops for girls. Postulants and novices soon arrive; the number of Sisters increases. Between 1938 and 1945, she lived through the most difficult years in the history of Poland: refugees, the persecuted, the sick, displaced persons, closed houses, dispersed Sisters. Dressed as a peasant girl, she hides in the Sakiszki House, maintaining contact with the Sisters through letters that recall those of Mother Mazzarello.
After the war, new frontiers were established, so the Sisters and 104 children left Wilno on a special train. Hidden among them were many illegal immigrants with their families. With Mother Laura’s charity and incessant prayer to Our Lady, she managed to save all of them. After the war, Mother Laura, in collaboration with the primate of Poland, Card. Augusto Hlond, SDB, opened new houses and works, facing the new challenges imposed by communism. In 1946, she settled in Pogrzebień, where she re-opened the Novitiate. There Sister Laura Meozzi died on 30 August 1951, consumed by her efforts and consoled by the flowering of vocations.
PRAYER
O God the Father,
You who filled with goodness
the heart of your servant Sister Laura Meozzi,
who spent her life caring for orphans,
consoling the afflicted,
and helping the needy,
please hasten
the time of her beatification
and grant to us, who entrust ourselves
with faith to her intercession,
the graces we humbly ask of you. Amen.
Que buena iniciativa ,podernos unirnos y concer más a la Hna Laura Meozzi,gracias.