Chiara Badano

Chiara Badano was born on 29 October 1971 in Sassello, a small town in the province of Savona in Liguria, northern Italy. She was the only child of Ruggero Badano, a truck driver, and Maria Teresa Caviglia, who had waited eleven years for a child. She grew up in a devout Catholic household of modest means in the Ligurian hinterland. Those who later testified in her cause described an ordinary, strong-willed girl who loved sport—especially tennis—as well as friends, music, and the usual interests of a late-twentieth-century Italian teenager, while also taking part in ordinary parish life.

At about the age of nine she encountered the Focolare Movement at a youth gathering and was drawn to its spirituality of living the Gospel in daily life and of seeking unity. She became an active member of the movement’s youth, known as the Gen. Chiara Lubich, foundress of the Focolare, later gave her the name Chiara Luce (Clear Light), the name by which she is remembered in Catholic devotion. In adolescence she combined school, sport, and movement meetings, and she spoke of wanting to serve others, including thoughts of a medical vocation. Companions recalled an increasingly deliberate effort to love in small, concrete ways and to live the present moment.

While still a teenager she felt a sudden, severe pain in her shoulder during a tennis match. Physicians diagnosed osteosarcoma, an aggressive bone cancer. She underwent chemotherapy and related treatments, lost her hair, and eventually lost the use of her legs. She offered her suffering with the brief prayer “For you, Jesus,” and at times refused morphine in order to remain lucid and to pray. She encouraged visiting friends not to be sad, gave away personal belongings, and spoke of death as a meeting with Christ. She asked to be dressed for burial in a white dress, as a bride going to Jesus, and helped plan songs and readings for her funeral. She died at home in Sassello on 7 October 1990, a few weeks before her nineteenth birthday.

Her funeral drew many young people from the Focolare Movement. The diocesan inquiry for her cause was opened in the Diocese of Acqui in 1999. Pope Benedict XVI recognized the heroic character of her virtues and a miracle attributed to her intercession. She was beatified on 25 September 2010 at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Divine Love near Rome; Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, presided in the pope’s name. She has not been canonized. Her liturgical memorial is kept on 29 October, the anniversary of her birth. She is widely presented in the Catholic Church as a model for young people and for those who face serious illness. Pilgrims visit Sassello, where she is buried. Her life is known from family and friends’ testimonies, her letters, and the acts of her cause, which portray an ordinary Ligurian teenager who sought holiness through the Focolare spirituality and through illness.