Bl. Alessandra Sabattini

  Posted on May 1, 2020  by admin  No comments

Born: 19 August 1961 Riccione Hospital, Riccione, Rimini, Italy

Died: 2 May 1984 in Bologna, Italy of head injuries sustained when hit by a motor vehicle on 29 April 1984 

Venerated: 6 March 2018 by Pope Francis (decree of heroic virtues)

Beatified: 14 June 2020 by Pope Francis, beatification recognition celebrated at the Cathedral of San Francesco in Rimini, Italy, celebrated by Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu 

Feast: 2 May

A lifelong lay woman in the diocese of Rimini, Italy, she was the daughter of Giuseppi and Agnese Bonin Sabattini and had one brother. A pious girl, Alessandra made her First Communion on 3 May 1970, was Confirmed on 16 April 1972, and joined the Associazione Comunita Papal Giovanni XXIII (Pope John XXIII Community) at the age of 12. 

She studied medicine with a plan to work with missionaries in Africa, and was engaged to a man named Guido. Alessandra spent her free time working with the poor, being consumed by the beatitude, ‘Blessed are the poor, the kingdom of Heaven is theirs’, volunteering in drug rehabilitation centers, and living poorer than the people she helped. She died from being struck by a motor vehicle and spending three days in a coma, and her Cause for Canonization presents her as a model for living heroic Christian virtues in a normal, working life.