1910 was a particularly difficult but fruitful year in the years “after Paula”. The revolution in Portugal caused the dispersal of the Sisters. They were forced to leave that country, in sorrow and privation, and transplant Paula’s gift in other nations… Spain, Switzerland, the United States, Belgium, England, Malta… where the refugee Sisters are welcomed. Read more about Paula’s Spirit Continues…[…]
She accepted with enthusiasm every offer that she could respond to. Schools, boarding schools, orphanages, catechism, Work of St. Dorothy, the Spiritual Exercises… these were the practical ways in which she tried to give some support, and if necessary substitute the educative and formative role of the family. They were years of intense work that Read more about Apostolic Enthusiasm and Suffering[…]
In Rome, Paula and her companions experienced severe poverty. They lived in two tiny rooms over the Torlonia stables, in Holy Apostles Lane. Here they experienced a taste of the hard life lived by the poorest of this Catholic City. This situation was no obstacle to Paula in giving herself immediately to do the good Read more about In Rome[…]
It was yet another friend, Fr. Luigi Sturla, who offered Paula another apostolic challenge. He asked her to take the direction of a school for poor children that he had opened in Genoa in the St. Teodoro district. How could she say no? Together the companions decided that Marianna Danero and Teresa Albino should go… Read more about New Horizons[…]
In 1835 a priest from Bergamo, Fr. Luke Passi, a friend of Fr. Joseph, visited Quinto and, having met Paula, understood immediately her capabilities and the potential of the group she had founded. He asked her to adopt, as a method of carrying out the apostolate, the movement which he was spreading throughout Italy as Read more about Sisters of Saint Dorothy[…]
Early one morning at dawn, when all was still in silence and nature was only beginning to take on its daytime colors Paula and her friends together with Father Joseph went up to the Church of St. Clare at St. Martino in Albaro… Within the Eucharistic celebration which renews Jesus’ offering of Himself for the Read more about A Significant Day[…]
Paula spoke to her brother, who was very happy to see how the Lord was inviting his sister to a magnifìcent adventure, but he did not hide the inevitable and perhaps numerous difficulties she would meet. This did not frighten Paula. Later she would write that, “working indefatigably and suffering for love of God brings Read more about The First Steps[…]
The older girls in the parish wished so much to meet the parish priest’s sister. One of these, Marianna Danero, managed to reach her goal and they planned to meet every Sunday and go for a walk on the nearby mountain, Monte Moro. In this way a friendship that would last a life time was Read more about Her Friends[…]
In 1827, when only 22 years old, Paula’s brother, Joseph, is ordained a priest. Paula is then 18 years old. Father Joseph was sent as parish priest to Quinto, a small town on the Ligurian coast The poor morals and lack of religious education of his parishioners did not discourage him, but he realized that Read more about In the Parish[…]
Paula was born in Genoa in 1809 in an area known as, Borgo Lanaioli. Her father, a man of the old stock, was deeply religious. He was a cloth merchant. Her mother an uncomplicated, gentle woman was soon to leave Paula an orphan. Paula grew up in a time in history in which the clash Read more about A Gift of God[…]