Teresa Manganiello was born on January 1, 1849, in Montefusco, in the Archdiocese of Benevento. The eleventh child of a peasant family, and a peasant herself, she experienced suffering already in her childhood and adolescence, which she spent between domestic chores and work in the fields. Alienated from the joys of childhood, she demonstrated righteousness of character and singular purity of heart combined with prayer and generous service. Although illiterate, she always gave clear evidence of singular maturity of mind. At the age of twelve, she made a private vow of virginity, and as a young woman she constantly refused numerous offers of marriage.
At the age of twenty, her already remarkable and recognized human and spiritual maturity grew exceptionally at the school of the Franciscan Third Order, which was established in her native town by Father Lodovico Acernese, a Capuchin. The young Teresa readily joined and, on 15 May 1870, under the guidance of her spiritual director, she made admirable progress on the path to holiness according to the spirit of the Poverello of Assisi. She was in love with poverty, a faithful observer of obedience, and heroically generous in her penitential spirit. In the eyes of Fr. Ludovico, her confessor, she appeared as an exceptional model of a tertiary.
While she lived fully according to the Profession and Rules of the Third Order, she would have liked to enter a convent, but the Lord never granted her this grace, leaving her to suffer in poverty, even though Father Acernese, who was nurturing the project of founding a new religious family, had thought of Teresa as a model and first superior. The young tertiary combined her ardour for the Eucharist and the Passion of the Lord with a lively flame of charity towards her neighbour, which extended to her large family, to the many poor people who passed through the farmhouse, to the beggars and the sick, to whom she gave attentive care using medicinal herbs that she cultivated herself.
In 1874, while attending Holy Mass, she suffered a haemoptysis, followed by others, which confined her to bed for several months, during which she gave admirable examples of meekness and joyful acceptance of suffering for the love of the Lord. She passed away with an outburst of joy on the night of 4 November 1876.
Pope Benedict XVI said, “As St. Francis, she sought to imitate Jesus Christ offering sufferings and penances for the reparation of sins, she was full of love for neighbor, and she did everything she could for everyone, especially for the poor and sick.”
The feast day – November 4.
Sources:
https://www.causesanti.va/it/santi-e-beati/teresa-manganiello.html
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/19764/newly-beatified-italian-lauded-by-pope-for-her-holiness
Photo: Alchetron Free Social Encyclopedia