Blessed Are They: Saints Among Us
In 1238, Emily Bicchieri was born the fourth of seven daughters to a family in Vercelli, Italy. Even as a young girl, Emily responded to the needs of the poor and troubled. She gave away any money or gifts given to her to those less fortunate. Emily knew as a teenager that she wanted to be a nun. Her beloved father died when she was just seventeen, having given her permission to enter a convent. Once confident that her mother would be provided for, Emily used her inheritance to build a convent for Sisters of the Third Order of Saint Dominic. Such a convent for women members of the Third Order was the first of its kind.
Emily was chosen as prioress by her Sisters, and their community life focused on good works as well as prayer. Unlike many convents, this community had no lay Sisters– all the Sisters were of the same rank and shared in all the work of maintaining the house. They prayed regularly and were encouraged to spend considerable time each day in contemplative solitude. Any donations or gifts from rich benefactors were promptly distributed to the poor.
Emily’s life was one of deep devotion, contemplation, and charitable service. The style of Dominican, conventual life that she imagined and inaugurated was the precursor for communities of Dominican apostolic life. She died on May 3, 1314, after a half-century of prayer and good works in the convent that she had founded. Blessed Emily Bicchieri (Emily of Vercelli) was beatified in 1769.
As we observe All Saints Day, let us celebrate Dominican women like Emily of Vercelli. She serves as the foundational ancestor for apostolic Dominican Sisters, now established in more than one hundred countries worldwide, and numbering more than 17,000. Like many other Dominican holy women, Emily may be relatively unknown and uncelebrated. However, on All Saints Day especially, it is important to emphasize that more than forty Dominican women have been formally recognized by our Church as venerable, blessed, or saint. Hundreds more are popularly recognized as saints who’ve walked among us.
Worldwide, we recall just a few of our holy women of the Order:
- Saint Zdislava (13th Century), Czech wife and mother, Lay Dominican who was devoted to the poor and sick, founder of a Dominican convent;
- Venerable Theresa Chikaba (1676-1748), who was stolen into slavery from West Africa, and became a Dominican Nun in Spain, noted for holiness and works of charity;
- Saint Rose of Lima (1586-1617), Lay Dominican, patroness of Peru and the indigenous peoples of Latin America, first person born in the Americas to be canonized, was known for her asceticism and care of the needy;
- Venerable Francisca del Espíritu Santo Fuentes (1647-1711), a young widow of mixed race, who established a religious community for Filipino women known as “beatas” (blessed) because they were examples of humility and devotion, helping the sick and needy;
- Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic, Ita Ford and Maura Clarke; Ursuline Sister, Dorothy Kazel; Cleveland lay missioner, Jean Donovan, martyred for their commitment to the poor of El Salvador.
On this All Saints Day, let us call on all the holy Dominican women who’ve gone before us, channels of the Word and preachers of Good News, to intercede for us so that we might be given the grace to become what they have been for the honor and glory of God. Amen.
Toni Harris OP, Dominican of Sinsinawa USA
