Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Fides Service) - Paola Elisabetta Cerioli, was born to noble parents in 1816 in Soncino, Cremona, Italy. She was an obedient and docile child. At the age of eleven she was sent to a boarding school run by the Visitandine Sisters animated by Salesian spirituality. Five years later she returned home and out of obedience to the will of her parents, in which she always recognised the will of God, at the age of 19 she married a widower of 58, heir to the Counts of Tassis of Comonte di Seriate. Four children were born from the marriage, three died very soon and the youngest Carlo lived to the age of 16. Paola’s husband died when she was 39, leaving her heir to an immense heritage. Totally devoted to serving God in the poor, she opened the family’s beautiful country residence as a home for girl orphans.
In 1857 she founded an Institute of Sisters of the Holy Family. After overcoming no few obstacles on 4 November 1863 she achieved her deepest aspiration, putting another country house, Villacampagna di Soncino, at the service of boy orphans. These were the first institutes run by Sisters and Brothers of the Holy Family whose charisma was to offer material assistance and moral and religious education to enable the peasant people to elevate their state of life.
This was a confirmation of a prediction made by her son Carlo on his death bed, that in his place she would have numerous other sons and daughters to care for. As a life-model for herself and for the Institute’s Brothers and Sisters and ‘orphans’ she chose the Holy Family, Jesus, Mary and Joseph, encouraging them to realise that as children of God they should learn to be fathers and mothers. Simplicity and humility were the essence of her life: virtues which she recommended with insistence to her Sisters. After becoming poor to serve the poor she died on 24 December 1865, entrusting to Divine Providence both the Institute for Girls already thriving, and the seed just sown of the Institute for Boys.
Paola Elisabetta Cerioli was and is considered an authentic innovative educator for her times. Her Homes and Schools were born and thrived with the intention of promoting the uplifting and development of society starting from the family. As well as devoting herself to education she was also concerned with the problem of poverty and the needs of children without a family. Her pedagogy and all her education must be understood in the ambit of her faith experience and more specifically her decision to be mother to poor children after becoming poor as the Gospel demands and assisting with that same charity which shines in the mystery of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph as a representation of the very mystery of the Most Holy Trinity.
Today there are 250 Holy Family Sisters working in Italy, Brazil and Uruguay, and the Religious of the Congregation of the Holy Family are about 80 and they have communities in Italy, Switzerland Brazil, Mozambique. Their apostolate is to educate young people and prepare them to live in society in such as way as to enrich it with Christian values. The specific educational end is to educate children to adopt concrete attitudes of love, solidarity and justice and to care for those who are poor, excluded and ignored. The intention is therefore to help children develop a mentality and attitude open to the various sorts of poverty in the world. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 14/5/2004; Righe 38; Parole 553)
