Maria Giuseppina di Gesù Crocifisso

Maria Giuseppina di Gesù Crocifisso, born Giuseppina Catanea, was an Italian Discalced Carmelite nun of the first half of the twentieth century, later beatified by the Catholic Church. She was born in Naples on 18 February 1894 to a family of the Neapolitan nobility; her father was Grimaldo Catanea and her mother Emilia Pacelli. In the family and in the city she was commonly called Pinella. Naples at the close of the nineteenth century remained a centre of intense popular Catholicism, and she was raised in that environment. From her earliest years she showed a serious interest in prayer and in helping the poor, and she was drawn to the churches of her native city, among them those associated with the Carmelite tradition.

Illness marked her life from adolescence onward. She suffered from ailments that progressively limited her mobility and in time left her dependent on a wheelchair, a condition she came to interpret in the light of the Passion of Christ. Despite these constraints she sought a contemplative vocation with the Discalced Carmelite nuns. She became closely attached to the monastery of Santa Maria di Gesù at Ponti Rossi, a Carmel on the northern side of Naples. For a long period she was unable to enter the cloister in the ordinary way; she lived in proximity to the community, shared as far as possible in its spirit, and was regarded as a devoted associate and supporter of the nuns. Only in 1932, when she was already in her late thirties, was she received into the monastery. She took the religious name Maria Giuseppina di Gesù Crocifisso, a title that expressed her desire to unite her physical sufferings with Jesus Crucified.

Inside Carmel she followed the Teresian rule according to her strength, participating in the recitation of the Divine Office and in the community’s life of silence and work so far as her health allowed. She was esteemed by her sisters for patience, humility, and sound judgment. In the 1940s she was elected prioress of the Ponti Rossi community, an unusual responsibility for a nun so severely disabled, and she exercised that office during the difficult years that followed the Second World War in Naples. Those who knew her spoke of her gift for spiritual counsel; lay people as well as religious sought her advice. She encouraged trust in God’s will and the acceptance of the cross, remaining herself subject to pain and to the limitations of her condition until the end.

Maria Giuseppina di Gesù Crocifisso died in the monastery at Naples on 14 March 1948. She was buried at the Ponti Rossi Carmel, where her tomb became a place of local devotion. The reputation of holiness that had surrounded her in life led to the opening of a cause for beatification. Pope Benedict XVI approved her beatification, which was celebrated in Naples on 1 June 2008. She has not been canonized and is venerated as Blessed. Her memory is kept especially among the Discalced Carmelites and in the Church of Naples.