Clelia Barbieri

Clelia Barbieri was born on 13 February 1846 in the hamlet of Le Budrie, in the commune of San Giovanni in Persiceto near Bologna, then part of the Papal States. She was the daughter of Giuseppe Barbieri and Giacinta Nannetti. The household was poor, and circumstances worsened after Giuseppe died of cholera in 1855, leaving Giacinta to raise Clelia and her younger sister Ernestina. From childhood Clelia was noted for unusual piety. She received First Communion at about eight years of age, earlier than was then customary, and was devoted to the Eucharist and the rosary. She helped support the family by spinning and other humble work.

While still an adolescent she gathered village children to teach them Christian doctrine, acting as a catechist in her parish. Other young women were drawn to her example. Her seriousness in religion sometimes exposed her to mockery. With the encouragement of the parish priest, Don Gaetano Guidi, a small community formed around a life of prayer, manual labor, and the Christian education of girls, especially the poor.

On 1 May 1868, at the age of twenty-two, Barbieri and her companions began the religious family that became the Suore Minime dell'Addolorata, known in English as the Little Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows. The institute joined a simple common life to devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows and to service through catechesis and care of those in need. She is commonly described as the youngest founder of a religious congregation in the history of the Catholic Church. During her brief lifetime the community remained small and materially poor, still based in Le Budrie.

In 1870 she fell ill with tuberculosis and died in Le Budrie on 13 July 1870, at the age of twenty-three. After her death, members of the congregation reported hearing her voice joining them in prayer, a tradition preserved in the order as the phenomenon of the Voice. The Little Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows continued after her death and later established houses in Italy and elsewhere. Clelia Barbieri was beatified by Pope Paul VI on 27 October 1968 and canonized by Pope John Paul II on 9 April 1989. Her liturgical memorial is kept on 13 July. Her remains are venerated at the motherhouse of her congregation in Le Budrie.