Lucca’s Blessed Elena Guerra will be a Saint, 110 years after her death: the Canonization will take place on Sunday, October 20 in Rome. “During the Consistory, the Pope decreed that Blessed Manuel Ruiz López and seven companions and Francis, Mooti and Raffaele Massabki, Giuseppe Allamano, Marie-Léonie Paradis and Elena Guerra be registered in the Register of Saints on Sunday, October 20, 2024”. This is what the bulletin released yesterday by the Vatican Press Office says. The canonization will take place in Rome and will be presided over by Pope Francis.
The Church of Lucca received the news with great joy and Archbishop Monsignor Paolo Giulietti does not hide it: “We are truly very happy – underlines Archbishop Giulietti – and the diocese will participate in Rome for two days: both on the 20th for the canonization and on the 21st for the traditional Mass of thanksgiving. These are very important days and a program will be published soon by the diocesan organizing committee which also includes the Oblate Sisters of the Holy Spirit, founded by Blessed Elena Guerra. That this woman from Lucca is proclaimed a Saint is an important recognition for our ecclesial community and for its journey”.
Happiness also in the words of the Superior General of the Congregation of the Oblates of the Holy Spirit, Sister Maria Laura Quattrini, who lives in Lucca. “We daughters of Elena Guerra – she says – are proud that our Mother becomes a Saint. We hope that from heaven she will help to sanctify each of us. But I would like to emphasize that she is a Saint not only of our Congregation but of the entire Church. She is the Saint who rediscovered the Holy Spirit who, thanks to her, is no longer the great unknown, rather as she said, should be known, prayed to and loved by all. We are happy to have a Saint who has done so much for the Church”.
Blessed Elena Guerra (Lucca, 23 June 1835 – 11 April 1914) had a childhood marked by family religiosity. From a very young age, she worked to assist cholera patients as well as to form spiritual friendships. After a serious illness, during which she dedicated herself to the study of the Word of God and the Fathers of the Church, she went on a pilgrimage to Rome. In 1882, in Lucca, she founded an active female community dedicated to Saint Zita for the education of girls. Among these, she welcomed a young woman from Lucca of the highest rank: the future Saint Gemma Galgani. This female spiritual association became the Congregation of the Oblates of the Holy Spirit in 1897, thanks to Pope Leo XIII.
The bond between Elena Guerra and Pope Leo XIII, who was Archbishop of Perugia before ascending to the Papal Throne, was very strong. The courage and tenacity of this woman from Lucca managed to make inroads into the papal curia. Pope Leo XIII welcomed her and gave her support. In 1959, Pope John XXIII proclaimed her Blessed. Various miracles are attributed to her, but the one that allowed her to be canonized occurred in Brazil: the complete healing of a man who had been in a coma for some time and diagnosed as brain dead. Elena Guerra’s body rests in the church of Sant’Agostino in the historic center of Lucca.
Paul Pacini
