Saint Maria De Mattias - educator

Woman trapped by wealth who set up religious order

Maria De Mattias left behind a
life of relative prosperity

Maria De Mattias, whose ambition to serve Christ and to see women given the chance to receive a formal education led her to set up a religious order, was born on this day in 1805 in Vallecorsa, a village in a mountainous region of southern Lazio.

De Mattias, who died in Rome in 1866, was beatified in 1950 by Pope Pius XII and made a saint in 2003 by Pope John Paul II. 

The Sisters Adorers of the Blood of Christ, which she established in 1834, now has a membership of more than 2,000, with communities in South America, the United States, Southeast Asia and Africa as well as Italy.

During more than 30 years travelling throughout Italy to help establish communities of her Sisters, De Mattias founded nearly 70 schools, often in remote towns and rural areas of Italy.

The young Maria had an upbringing said to have been happy for the most part but subject to constraints that children and adolescents in the modern world would find difficult to tolerate.

This had less to do with any restrictions imposed on her by her parents, though they had a strong faith that her father, Giovanni, passed on to her through his reading of the scriptures, than the political and social climate at the time.

About 30km (19 miles) south of the small city of Frosinone, and approximately 115km (71 miles) south of Rome, Vallecorsa sat close to the border of the Papal States and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, on the edge of a geographical region known as Ciociaria.

Territorial disputes across the area gave rise to frequent outbreaks of violence between competing factions. Gangs representing one side or another would often establish strategic bases in mountainous areas and terrorise local people, stealing food and demanding money.

Vallecorsa is built on a hillside in the rugged
terrain of mountainous southern Lazio

Since Maria’s family was moderately wealthy - her father was for a time Mayor of Vallecorsa - they were targets for kidnap, a favoured method of raising funds for the bandit gangs. As a result, she and her siblings were not allowed to play outside, where they would be especially vulnerable.

Although she was a restless and lively child, who enjoyed playing with her brothers, Maria spent much of her time inside the house, often in her room with the curtains closed so that no one outside could see her.  

Despite her confinement, she was said to have been somewhat vain, fond of brushing her long, blonde hair and admiring herself in the mirror.  It was while doing this one day, at the age of 16 or 17, that she is said to have undergone a dramatic change.  Struck by the emptiness of her life - her father did not believe in girls receiving a formal education - she was suddenly repulsed by her own face in the mirror and looked away, her eyes falling instead on the painting of the Madonna above her bed, to which she had never previously paid much attention.

Drawing herself closer to the painting, she said that she sensed the Madonna was speaking to her and soon decided that if there was to be a purpose to her life, it would be one dedicated to God.  

She somehow taught herself to read, poring for hours over the contents of the many spiritual books on shelves around the family home. In 1822, she listened to a sermon delivered by Gaspar del Bufalo, founder of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, who was visiting Vallecorsa.

Del Bufalo’s words on devotion to the Precious Blood of Jesus inspired Maria to see Christ's life as a model for self-sacrifice. The following year, one of Del Bufalo’s close followers, Giovanni Merlini, returned to the village to assist in the founding of a House of Mission. 

The Order continues to help build new schools, such
as this one in the city of Mysura in southern India 

Merlini was a handsome young man and the shy Maria found it hard to approach him at first, but eventually they began to have conversations and what would prove an enduring friendship developed. Maria became more and more involved in the work of the Missionaries, particularly working with women and girls.

In 1834, with Merlini’s help, she founded the Congregation of the Sisters Adorers of the Blood of Christ to bring a focal point to this work. 

The religious order was founded as an apostolic order, an active teaching order, rather than a monastic one. After establishing a first school in Acuto, another town in the Ciociaria area of Lazio, the new order received papal approval in 1855. 

De Mattias was tireless in her travelling throughout Italy establishing communities of her Sisters, often walking long distances or making treacherous journeys on donkeys, and preaching in towns as she came across them. 

The women drawn to her communities were often poor but by the time De Mattias died in Rome in August 1866, at the age of 61, the community had created more than 70 schools in Italy, with some in Austria, Germany, and England.

Her followers wanted her to be buried in the church of Santa Maria in Trivio, a few steps from the Trevi Fountain, which was the mother church of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, but such burials at the time were not allowed on the grounds of hygiene.

Instead, she was buried in Rome's Campo Verano Cemetery, her tomb donated by Pope Pius IX.

Although it is customary for a saint’s feast day to be held on the anniversary of his or her death, there are exceptions to this rule. Maria De Mattias is one, her feast being celebrated on her birthday, February 4. 

The statue of Maria De
Mattias in Vallecorsa

Travel tip:

Vallecorsa, the home village of Maria De Mattias, occupies a hillside location at the foot of Monte Calvilli, at 3,661ft (1,116m) the highest peak of the Monti Ausoni, which themselves are part of the Volsci range of the Lazio Apennines.  Sometimes known as la città dell'olio - the city of the oil - it is notable for the growing of olive trees on terraces cut into the hillside and kept intact with stone walls. The area is popular for trekking and mountain biking. The town itself is characterised by steep, winding streets which on the perimeters often emerge into small squares offering sweeping views over the surrounding countryside. Street names such as the Via Santa Maria De Mattias and the Via San Gaspare del Bufalo acknowledge the history of the village. There is a statue of Maria De Mattias in Piazza Plebiscito at one end of the Via Santa Maria De Mattias; at the other is a museum housed in what was the family’s home.

The Stadio Benito Stirpe, home of Frosinone
Calcio, is one of the city's more modern buildings

Travel tip:

The ancient city of Frosinone, which was Gens Fursina in Etruscan times and Frusino under the Romans, is located on a hill overlooking the valley of the Sacco about 75km (47 miles) southeast of Rome, with the wider city spreading out across the surrounding plains. The Roman writer Cicero had a villa in Frusino. The city is part of a wider area known as Ciociaria, a name derived from the word ciocie, the footwear worn by the inhabitants in years gone by. Ciociaria hosts food fairs, events and music festivals as well as celebrating traditional feasts, when the local people wear the regional costume and the typical footwear.  Visitors can see the remains of a Roman amphitheatre from Viale Roma, while churches of interest include the Baroque Chiesa di San Benedetto in Via Cavour Camillo Benso, which also contains a small art gallery.  A much more modern edifice in the city is the Stadio Benito Stirpe, the 16,000-capacity home of Frosinone Calcio, which was built between 2015 and 2017 at a cost of around €20 million after the football club was promoted to Serie A for the first time in its history.

Also on this day:

1667: The birth of painter Alessandro Magnasco

1676: The birth of composer Giacomo Facco

1875: The birth of patriot and irredentist Cesare Battista 

1892: The birth of playwright Ugo Betti

2014: The death of soldier and writer Eugenio Corti

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3 February

Wilma Montesi - murder victim

‘Body on the beach’ mystery that sparked a national scandal

Wilma Montesi, the woman whose unexplained death in 1953 precipitated a scandal that reached the highest levels of the Italian government, was born on this day in 1932 in Rome.  Raised in the Trieste-Salario neighbourhood, little more than a couple of kilometres from central Rome, she was a 21-year-old woman who dreamed of becoming an actress but whose ambitions were known to no one outside her own family and friends until she disappeared from her home in Via Tagliamento on the afternoon of April 9, 1953.  Two days afterwards, her semi-naked body was found on the beach at Torvaianica, some 40km (25 miles) south of the capital. The mystery surrounding her death sparked four years of police investigations and conspiracy theories and the resignation of a senior member of prime minister Mario Scelba’s government.  On the afternoon of her disappearance, Montesi had declined an invitation to go to the cinema with her mother and sister, saying she would go for a walk instead. After she failed to return in time for supper, her family noticed that her ID papers and some jewellery, a gift from her policeman boyfriend that she always wore, were still in her room.  Read more…

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Giulio Gatti-Casazza - impresario

Manager who transformed the New York Met

Giulio Gatti-Casazza, the impresario who as general manager transformed the Metropolitan Opera in New York into one of the world’s great houses, was born on this day in 1869 in Udine in northeast Italy.  The former general manager at La Scala in Milan, Gatti-Casazza was in charge of the Met for 27 years, from 1908 to 1935. In that time, having brought with him from Milan the brilliant conductor and musical director Arturo Toscanini, he not only attracted almost all of the great opera singers of his era but set the highest standards for the company, which have been maintained to the present day.  Gatti-Casazza also pulled off the not inconsiderable feat of rescuing the Met from the brink of bankruptcy after the stock market crash of 1929. The young Gatti-Casazza had studied engineering after leaving school, graduating from the Genoa Naval School of Engineering, yet the love of opera was in the family. His father was manager of the Teatro Comunale, the municipal theatre in Ferrara, where they had moved when Giulio was young, and he succeeded his father in that role in 1893.  He proved very effective, combining his knowledge of opera with a natural gift for management.   Read more…

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Giuseppe Moretti - sculptor

Sienese artist who became famous in the United States

The sculptor Giuseppe Moretti, who became well known in the United States as a prolific creator of public monuments, was born on this day in 1857 in Siena.  Moretti's favourite medium was marble and he considered his Head of Christ, which he carved from a block of Alabama marble in 1903, to be his greatest work.  The creation which earned him most fame, however, was the 56-foot (17.07m) statue of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and metalworking, which he made for the 1904 World's Fair in St Louis, Missouri on behalf of the city of Birmingham, Alabama as a symbol of its heritage in the iron and steel industry.  Moretti made the statue in clay in New Jersey before overseeing its casting in iron in Birmingham.  Vulcan, the largest cast iron statue in the world, was relocated to Alabama State Fairgrounds after the St Louis Exposition before being moved again to the top of Red Mountain, the ridge overlooking Birmingham, which it shares with a number of radio and television transmission towers.  Although he spent much of his life away from Italy, it was in his homeland that Moretti developed his love for art and sculpture.  Read more…

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Giuseppe Forlenza – eye surgeon

Napoleon recognised brilliance of ocular specialist

Giuseppe Forlenza, an important 18th century ophthalmologist and surgeon, was born on this day in 1757 in Picerno in the province of Potenza. He became famous for performing successful cataract surgery and for his treatment of eye diseases. Forlenza was born in the region of Basilicata, which at that time was part of the Kingdom of Naples. His father and two uncles were all surgeons.  He went to Naples and then on to France to study surgery. He spent two years gaining experience at St George’s Hospital in London and then returned to France where he concentrated on treating eye diseases.  Forlenza carried out eye surgery at a retirement home in Paris and performed many remarkable operations on soldiers returning from fighting in Egypt who were suffering from eye problems.  He was recognised as a leading eye surgeon by Napoleon, who in a royal decree assigned him to treat eye disease throughout France.  Forlenza eventually returned to Italy where he performed many free operations in Turin and Rome.  Read more…

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Giovanni Battista Vaccarini - architect

Sicilian Baroque designs shaped the look of Catania

Giovanni Battista Vaccarini, the architect who designed many of the important buildings in Sicily’s second city of Catania, was born on this day in 1702 in Palermo. He was responsible for several palaces, including the Palazzo del Municipio, the Palazzo San Giuliano and the Palazzo dell’Università.  He completed the rebuilding of a number of churches, including the Chiesa della Badia di Sant’Agata, and designed the Baroque façade of the city’s Duomo – the Cattedrale di Sant’Agata – which had been a ruin.  Perhaps his most famous work, though, is the Fontana dell’Elefante, which he placed at the centre of the reconstructed Piazza Duomo, consisting of a marble pedestal and fountains, supporting an ancient Roman statue of an elephant made from lava stone, which in turn has an obelisk mounted on its back, supposedly inspired by Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s Obelisk of Minerva in Rome, which is also borne by an elephant.  The monument's nickname in the Sicilian language is "Liotru," a reference to Elidoros, an eighth century wizard who sought, through magic, to make the elephant walk. The statue came to be adopted as the symbol of the city.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: The Montesi Scandal: The Death of Wilma Montesi and the Birth of the Paparazzi in Fellini's Rome, by Karen Pinkus

Early on a windy morning in April 1953, the body of a young woman washed up on a beach outside of Rome. Her name was Wilma Montesi, and, as the papers reported, she had left her home in the city centre a day earlier, alone. The police called her death an accidental drowning. But the public was not convinced. In the cafes around the Via Veneto, people began to speak of the son of a powerful politician, lavish parties, movie stars, orgies, drugs. How this news item of everyday life exploded into one of the greatest scandals of a modern democracy is the story Karen Pinkus tells in The Montesi Scandal. Wilma's death brought to the surface every simmering element of Italian culture: bitter aspiring actresses, corrupt politicians, nervous Jesuits in sunglasses, jaded princes. Italians of all types lined up to testify in the death of the middle-class carpenter's daughter. They sold their stories to the tabloids, only to retract them. They posed for pictures while pretending to shun the spotlight. Pinkus takes us through Rome in the 1950s, linking Wilma's death to the beginnings of the "dolce vita" era and following the first paparazzi on their scooters as they shoot the protagonists. More than a meditation of the intricate ties among cinema, paparazzo photography and Italian life, The Montesi Scandal narrates the story and its characters as the notes for an unrealized film, brilliant in form and conception. As the reader discovers, the story of Wilma Montesi cannot be understood except as a film - but, ironically, one that seems impossible to produce.

Karen Pinkus is a Professor of Italian and Comparative Literature.  She is also a Faculty Fellow of the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future. For nearly two decades she has been working between Italian studies and environmental humanities with a focus on climate change. Her other books include Clocking Out: The Machinery of Life in 60s Italian Cinema and ​Fuel: A Speculative Dictionary.

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2 February

Raimondo D’Inzeo – Olympic showjumper

First athlete to compete in eight consecutive Games

Raimondo D'Inzeo, who with his older brother Piero became the first athlete to compete in eight consecutive Olympic Games, was born on this day in 1925 in Poggio Mirteto, a small town in Lazio about 45km (28 miles) northeast of Rome.  They achieved the record when they saddled up for the show jumping events in Montreal in 1976, surpassing the previous record of seven consecutive summer Games held by the Danish fencer Ivan Osiier, whose run, which began in 1908 and was interrupted twice by World Wars, had stood since 1948.  The D’Inzeo brothers, whose Olympic journey began in London in 1948 just as Osiier’s was ending, had chalked off seven Olympics in a row at Munich in 1972, when each won the last of their six medals in the team event. Raimondo had carried the Italian flag at the opening ceremony.  Their finest moment came at the 1960 Olympics in their own country, when they were roared on by a patriotic crowd at the Villa Borghese Gardens in Rome to complete a one-two in the individual event, Raimondo taking the gold medal on his horse Posillipo, Piero the silver on The Rock.  Read more…

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Vittorino da Feltre – humanist and educator

Teacher to the nobility provided free education for poor children

A scholar considered to have been the greatest humanist schoolmaster of the Renaissance, Vittorino da Feltre, died on this day in 1446 in Mantua in the Lombardy region.  Da Feltre, who was originally named Vittore dei Ramboldini when he was born in Feltre in the republic of Venice in 1378, is thought to have established the first boarding school in Europe, a place of learning where the pupils enjoyed their lessons so much that it became known as La Casa Gioiosa - The House of Joy.  After studying and then teaching at the University of Padua, Da Feltre chose to settle in Padua and became a successful teacher, welcoming pupils into his own home, varying his fee according to the financial situation of the pupil’s family. He himself had come from a noble family that had become impoverished and his own early education had been difficult, but this had contributed to making him a strong and decisive character. He had also benefited from free tuition at the University of Padua.  In 1423, he was asked to become tutor to the children of the powerful Gonzaga family, who ruled over Mantua. He agreed to do this providing he could set up his own school away from the Gonzaga court and its political influence.  Read more…

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Antonio Maria Valsalva – anatomist

Work by brilliant professor benefits astronauts today

Antonio Maria Valsalva, a much respected anatomist, died on this day in 1723 in Bologna.  Valsalva’s research focused on the anatomy of the ear and his discoveries were so important that a piece of equipment used by astronauts today is named after him.  The Valsalva device in spacesuits allows astronauts to equalise the pressure in their ears by performing the Valsalva manoeuvre inside the suit without using their hands to block their nose. It has also been used for other purposes, such as to remove moisture from the face.  Valsalva was born in Imola in 1666. He received an education in humanities, mathematics and natural sciences before going on to study medicine and philosophy at Bologna University. He later became Professor of Anatomy at Bologna University.  His main interest was the middle and inner ear and it was Valsalva who coined the term Eustachian tube for a part within the ear. It was named after the 16th century anatomist Bartolomeo Eustachi. The Valsalva manoeuvre, the forcible exhalation against a closed airway, often practised by people to equalise pressure between the ears when on an aeroplane, is still used by doctors today to help them with diagnosis in certain situations.  Read more…

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Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina - composer

Prolific writer had huge influence on the development of religious music

The composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, who was the most famous representative of the 16th century Roman school of musical composition and whose work is often described as the culmination of Renaissance polyphony, died on this day in 1594 in Rome.  Probably in his 70th year when he died, he had composed hundreds of pieces, including 104 masses, more than 300 motets, at least 72 hymns and some 140 or more madrigals.  He served twice as maestro di cappella - musical director - of the Cappella Giulia (Julian Chapel), the choir at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, a highly prestigious if not well paid position.  Appointed for the first time in 1551, he might have stayed there for the rest of his working life had a new pope, Paul IV, not introduced much stricter discipline compared with his predecessor, Julius III. A decree set down by Paul IV in 1555 forbade married men to serve in the papal choir, as a result of which Palestrina and two colleagues were dismissed.  Palestrina subsequently directed the choir at the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano for five years before quitting abruptly in frustration at the limited ability of his singers, compared with St Peter’s.  Read more…

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Antonio Segni - prime minister and president

Sardinian politician famous for tactical cunning

Antonio Segni, the first Sardinian to become Italy's prime minister, was born on this day in 1891 in Sassari, the second largest city on the island.  Sassari was also the hometown of another Italian prime minister, Francesco Cossiga, and of the country's most successful Communist leader, Enrico Berlinguer.  Like Segni, Cossiga also served the country as president.  Born into a landowning family and a prominent member of the Christian Democratic party from the time of its formation towards the end of the Second World War, Segni was prime minister from 1955 to 1957 and from 1959 to 1960. He was president from 1962 until he was forced to retire due to ill health in 1964.  Frail in appearance for much of his life, Segni was a strong politician nonetheless, given the affectionate nickname Il malato di ferro - the invalid with the iron constitution - by his supporters.  He was also highly astute, particularly when it came to wrong-footing opponents.  Segni became politically active in his late 20s, joining the Italian People's Party (PPI) - predecessor of the Christian Democrats - in 1919 and by 1924 was a member of the party's national council. Read more…

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Book of the Day: Rome 1960: The Summer Olympics That Stirred the World, by David Maraniss

From the New York Times bestselling author of Clemente and When Pride Still Mattered, here is the blockbuster story of the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, 17 days that helped define the modern world. Legendary athletes and stirring events are interwoven into a suspenseful narrative of sports and politics at the Rome games, where cold-war propaganda and spies, drugs and sex, money and television, civil rights and the rise of women superstars all converged to forever change the essence of the Olympics. Using the meticulous research and sweeping narrative style that has become the Maraniss trademark, Rome 1960 reveals the rich palette of character, competition, and meaning that gave Rome 1960 its singular essence.

David Maraniss is a New York Times best-selling author, fellow of the Society of American Historians, and visiting distinguished professor at Vanderbilt University. He has been affiliated with the Washington Post for more than 40 years as an editor and writer, and twice won Pulitzer Prizes at the newspaper. In 1993 he received the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for his coverage of Bill Clinton, and in 2007 he was part of a team that won a Pulitzer for coverage of the Virginia Tech shooting. He was also a Pulitzer finalist three other times, including for one of his books, They Marched into Sunlight, a book about Vietnam and the 1960s.

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1 February

Corradino D'Ascanio - engineer

Aeronautical genius famed for helicopters and the Vespa scooter 

Corradino D'Ascanio, the aeronautical engineer whose design for a clean motorcycle turned into the iconic Vespa scooter and who also designed the first helicopter that could actually fly, was born on this day in 1891 in Popoli, a small town about 50km inland of Pescara.  The engineer, whose work on aircraft design during the Second World War saw him promoted to General in the Regia Aeronautica, was always passionate about flight and might never have become involved with road vehicles had he not been out of work in the post-War years.  His scooter would have been built by Lambretta had he not fallen out with the company founder, Ferdinando Innocenti, in a dispute over his design.  Instead, D'Ascanio took his plans to Enrico Piaggio, with whom he had worked previously in the aeronautical sector.  Piaggio saw in D'Ascanio's scooter an irresistible opportunity to revive his ailing company and commissioned the design, which became known as the Vespa after Piaggio remarked that its body shape resembled that of a wasp.  Read more…

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Teresa Mattei - partisan and politician

Former Communist who led Italian Women’s Union

The politician and former partisan Teresa Mattei, who was the youngest member of the Constituent Assembly that formed Italy’s post-War government and later became a director of the Unione Donne Italiane (Italian Women’s Union), was born on this day in 1921 in Genoa.  After being expelled from the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1957, Mattei became a leading advocate of the rights of children as well as women and later campaigned for the prosecution of war criminals.  As a prominent executive of the UDI she was influential in the adoption of mimosa as the symbol of International Women’s Day, which takes place on March 8 each year, arguing that because the flower proliferated in the countryside it represented a more accessible alternative to violets and orchids.  The daughter of a lawyer who was prominent in the anti-Fascist Partito d’Azione (Action Party), Mattei herself was an active member of the Italian Resistance during the Second World War, using the nom de guerre "Partigiana Chicchi".  Read more…

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Renata Tebaldi – opera singer

Performer with a beautiful lirico soprano voice

Opera singer Renata Tebaldi was born on this day in 1922 in Pesaro.  Said by the conductor Arturo Toscanini to possess ‘the voice of an angel’, Tebaldi had a long stage career and made numerous recordings.  Her parents had separated before her birth and she grew up in the home of her maternal grandparents in Langhirano in the province of Parma in Emilia-Romagna.  Tebaldi was stricken with polio at the age of three but later became interested in music and sang in the church choir. She was sent to have piano lessons but the teacher decided she should study singing instead and arranged for her to attend the conservatory in Parma. She later transferred to Liceo Musicale Rossini in Pesaro. Tebaldi made her stage debut in 1944, while Italy was still at war, in Arrigo Boito’s Mefistofele at the Teatro Sociale in Rovigo but her beautiful voice first began to attract attention in 1946 when she appeared as Desdemona in Giuseppe Verdi’s Otello in Trieste.  She auditioned for Toscanini who was immediately impressed.  Read more…

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Francesco Maria Veracini – violinist

Virtuoso performer was prolific composer

One of the great violinists of the 18th century, Francesco Maria Veracini, was born on this day in 1690 in Florence.  He was to become famous throughout Europe for his performances and for a while he was Handel’s biggest rival as a composer.  Veracini was born into a musical family, although his father was a pharmacist and undertaker. His grandfather, Francesco, had been one of the first violinists in Florence and had a music school business, which he eventually passed on to his son, Antonio, who was the younger Francesco’s teacher. Veracini grew up in Florence but by 1711 he had established himself in Venice where he played in church orchestras.  In 1712 on February 1, his 22nd birthday, he performed a violin concerto of his own composition in the church of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in honour of the visit to Venice of the Austrian ambassador. This is the first documented public performance by Veracini playing one of his own compositions. At about that time, one of his performances so impressed the violinist, Giuseppe Tartini, that he decided to take time off to study better use of the bow in Ancona.  Read more…

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Book of the Day: Vespa and Lambretta Motor Scooters, by Stuart Owen

Vespa and Lambretta remain the two most iconic motor scooter brands, even four decades after the latter's demise. But what made them such a European sensation in the postwar era? And why were they particularly popular in Britain in the 1950s and '60s? Motor scooter expert Stuart Owen explains the rise of Innocenti's Lambretta and Piaggio's Vespa, from the wartime ruins of Italy, through years of plenty as the two manufacturers exploited a ready market for affordable, economic transport, and then their decline into more uncertain times as motor cars trespassed on their success. Vespa and Lambretta Motor Scooters also explores the rich history of accessorising and customising the scooters, their essential role in the mod movement, and the revival in Vespa's fortunes following the release of the cult film Quadrophenia.

Stuart Owen has written many features for Scootering Magazine and in 2017 he published his first book on the history of the Lambretta. He has been involved in the scooter industry for more than 30 years, owning both Lambrettas and Vespas and running a business to cater for them.

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