Blessed Cecilia Eusepi
Also known as
- Maria Angela
Profile
Youngest of eleven children, Cecilia was baptized at the age of 9 days, and her father died when she was 2 months old. On 6 January 1915 the family moved to a small farm near Nepi, Italy, and came under the care of a maternal uncle. Cecilia received Confirmation on 27 May 1917, and made her First Communion on 2 October 1917. She was educated in a Cistercian convent school. In 1922 she joined the Servants of Mary (Servites) as a secular tertiary, receiving the scapular at the San Tolomeo ai Servi church, and taking the name Maria Angela. Member of Catholic Action.
Cecilia was drawn to religious life, and against her family’s wishes, she became a Servite postulant in 1923. She studied in Rome, Pistoia and Zara from 1923 to 1926, hoping to become a missionary, but contracted tuberculosis and on 23 October 1926 returned to the family farm. Though her health deteriorated, she became known for her spiritual insights, and was a counselor to seminarians and members of Catholic Action; local priests would ask her opinion on homilies they were planning. Her spiritual director, the Servite priest Gabriele Roschini, instructed her to keep a journal of her life and relationship with Christ. It covered the period 29 May 1927 to 12 September 1928 and was published as “Storia di un Pagliaccio” (“Story of a Clown”).
Born
- 1 October 1928 in Nepi, Viterbo, Italy of tuberculosis
- she predicted the date of her death following a dream about Saint Thérèse of Lisieux
- she died singing a hymn to the Blessed Virgin Mary
- re-interred at the church of San Tolomeo ai Servi in Nepi on 16 March 1944
- 17 June 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI
- beatification celebrated at the Piazza della Bottata in Nepi, Italy by Cardinal Angelo Amato
- the beatification miracle involved the healing of Tommaso Ricci on 4 August 1959 from injuries received in what should have been a fatal traffic accident
MLA Citation
- “Blessed Cecilia Eusepi“. CatholicSaints.Info. 11 July 2023. Web. 19 April 2024. <>