CatholicSaints.Info

Profile

The daughter of Gioacchino Merloni, a wealthy and influential industrialist, and Teresa Brandinelli; Clelia was baptized in the diocesan cathedral of Santa Croce in Forli, Italy when she was only a few hours old. Her mother died in 1864 when Clelia was only 3 years old; her maternal grandmother and her step-mother, Maria Giovanna Boeri who married Gioacchino in 1866, raised her to be a pious girl with a good education. Her father became so involved in succeeding in business that he became openly hostile to religion in general, joined the Freemasons, and became specifically anti–Catholic. He planned to have Clelia follow him into business, but she was drawn to religious life which led to family strife as he blamed the women in the family for turning Clelia against him. Clelia responded by praying for him and doing penance in reparation of her father‘s actions. He was reconciled to the faith before his death in 1885.

Freed from her family obligations, Clelia joined the Figlie di Santa Maria della Divina Provvidenza (Daughters of Holy Mary of the Divine Providence). In religious life, she felt a calling to start a congregation devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and eventually founded the Apostole del Sacro Cuore di Gesù (Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus) in Viareggio, Italy on 30 May 1894. Internal disputes, including corruption and theft by Clelia’s finance administrator, led to her leaving the order in 1896; the adminstrator was a priest, and Clelia refused to bring in civil authorities for fear of causing scandal and stirring up anti–Catholic sentiment. But on 10 June 1900, with the approval and support of Blessed Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, bishop of Piacenza, Italy, she returned to religious life, was accepted back into the Apostles, and helped set them up on their new work as missionaries to Brazil. Following the loss of support caused by the death of bishop Scalabrini in 1905, the internal strife in the Apostles erupted again, support of Clelia declined, and in 1911 she was replaced as Superior General by the Vatican. Clelia withdrew from public life, and in 1916 received dispensation to be released from her religious vows. However, late in life she requested to re-enter religious life, and on 7 March 1928 became a simple sister in the Apostles.

The Apostles, whose motto is “The Love of Christ Impels Us”, continue their good work today with 1,200 sisters based in 195 houses in Italy, Switzerland, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, the United States, Mozambique, Benin, Albania, Taiwan and the Philippines, focusing primarily on education.

Born

10 March 1861 in Forli, Italy

Died

21 November 1930 in Rome, Italy of natural causes
buried at Campo Verano cemetery in Rome
following the destruction of the cemetery during World War II, Mother Clelia was re-interred in the chapel of the Motherhouse of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Rome in 1945

Venerated

21 December 2016 by Pope Francis (decree of heroic virtues)

Beatified

3 November 2018 by Pope Francis
beatification recognition celebrated at the Basilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome, Italy, presided by Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu
the beatification miracle involved the cure of Brazilian physician Pedro Ângelo of Landry’s paralysis or Guillian-Barré syndrome, in 1951; Ângelo had reached the point where he could barely swallow, and his condition was considered fatal; he was completely cured after a combination of prayer and drinking from a cup of water in which a relic of Merloni (a piece of fabric from her veil) had been placed