Today is the feast of St. Paula Frassinetti, (1809-1882), incorruptible. This shy, middle-class girl from Genoa in Italy was fashioned by God in love to be just the right person at just the right time, it seems. When she was growing up at her mother's knee, absorbing all she could about cooking and cleaning, sewing and embroidery -- it all having to be learned by her and her alone, being the only daughter among 5 children -- who knew she would lose her mother so soon and need those skills to raise the family and meet its needs . . . at the tender age of 9? But she did. Now I have one girl in a family of 4 children and while some may say, as did my source for this saint, that that means she'd be somewhat spoiled or at least indulged, don't you believe it! She may have been protected, but if she's anything like my daughter, she was tough, tough, tough! And I think that's true. All four of her brothers became priests and when her health began to fail at a young age, she went to live with one of them at Quinto, a city on the coast. She immediately began to help out in the parish, especially teaching catechism. The fresh air and good climate helped her and she was soon well. She began to think of her future and told her dad it was teaching youth there in Quinto. He was not very pleased, but agreed to let her go. She started a school for girls where she taught them all the domestic skills she'd learned from her mother, but more importantly (to her), the love of God and all manner of spiritual things. She was way ahead of her time by forbidding corporal punishment -- she didn't even use verbal punishment. She believed "that children must love and be loved; she felt that love would form children as nothing else would." - Modern Saints. She had remarkable success; once when a spoiled brat of a girl made a terrible scene, she called her to her and took her on a long errand. The girl knew she was in for a scolding. But Mother Paula only talked of the goodness of God and spiritual things. By the end, the girl was truly repentant.
Paula's example and radiant love drew many young women to her. Though there were plenty of contemplative orders of nuns available, Paula wanted to start her own order, one where the girls would not be cloistered and one where they wouldn't have to pay a dowry. Most of the postulants were poor and couldn't afford any of the other orders anyway. Paula called her order the Congregation of St. Dorothy or Dorotheans. They were dedicated to educating girls, because as go the women, so goes society.
She lived through turbulent, anti-clerical times in her country. Ordered to close her schools down (she had several, including in Portugal and Brazil), she refused. Ordered to put off the habit and wear secular clothes, she wouldn't. She spent many a sleepless night guarding her nuns and students from armies and rioting mobs. "Mother Paula feared no man." - Modern Saints. That kind of reminds me of the mother superior in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables.
She came through the revolution (1850-59) and continued to expand and visit her many houses and schools. She suffered a paralyzing stroke in 1882 (after two previous ones) and Don Bosco was called. The nuns thought his presence might effect a cure, but he only said, "My children, your mother's crown of merits is completed." She died shortly after that on June 11, 1882. When she was dug up in 1906 when her cause was opened (for beatification), she was found to be perfectly preserved. Her body was transferred to a silver and crystal reliquary under the main altar in the Motherhouse in Rome, where you can see it today. She was beatified in 1930 and canonized in 1983.
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