Feast day: 15 December
St Virginia Centurione Bracelli was born in Genoa on 2 April 1587, and was of noble birth. She was the daughter of Giorgio Centurione, Doge of Genoa from 1621 until 1623, and Lelia Spinola. Virginia’s mother was very pious and Virginia began a life of prayer and contemplation from a very early age. Her bother, Francisco, received Latin lessons but was very mischievous and their mother kept an eye on him while Virginia sat sewing nearby. Since she was already proficient with her needle, she was able to take in what was being taught and learnt the language of the church. She studied and meditated on passages of scripture, which she could quote by heart. Her mother, understanding her desire to enter religious life, promised to take her to a convent when the time came, but she died prematurely and her father, who had an important position in Genoa, forced her to marry Gaspare Grimaldi Bracelli in 1602. She had two daughters, Lelia and Isabella. The marriage did not last long. Gaspare gambled and generally led a dissolute life; he became ill and died in 1607. Thus Virginia was left a widow at the age of twenty. She refused to remarry and lived in her mother-in-law’s house, looking after her daughters and devoting herself to works of charity. She had already pronounced a vow of perpetual chastity.
She felt a special vocation to serve the poor and began to share her wealth. She arranged the marriages of her daughters and then began to take care of abandoned children. In 1624 a war broke out between the Ligurian Republic and the Duke of Savoy, aided by France. Unemployment increased, as well as starvation. Virginia accommodated fifteen abandoned young people and provided for their needs as well as refugees in the town, especially poor women. In 1625 her mother-in-law died and she began to go further afield into the deprived areas of the town to seek out the needy and those in danger of depravity.
To help with the increasing poverty, Virginia founded the Centro Signore della Misericordia Protettrici dei Poveri di Gesu Cristo. The centre was soon overrun by people suffering from the plague and famine of 1629-30. Soon she had to rent the Monte Calvario Convent to accommodate all the people who came in. By 1635 the centre was caring for over three hundred patients, and received recognition as a hospital from the government.
She taught catechism to the young people she had taken in, as well as a means of becoming self sufficient. Since purchasing the convent would be very expensive, she bought two villas next to Carignano Hill. Together with the construction of the new annexe to the church dedicated to Our Lady of Refuge they became the Mother House of the Institution. Some women became professed nuns; others did not take the religious habit but lived a life of poverty and obedience, working and praying. The Institution was divided into two religious congregations: the Sisters of Our Lady of Refuge in Mount Calvary and the Daughters of Our Lady on Mount Calvary. Protectors took control of the Institution. They were nobles appointed by the Senate of the Republic. Virginia withdrew from the government house. She devoted herself to household chores, begging for money to sustain the work and acting a mother to all the inmates. Virginia had previously engaged in social action. Men were sent to work, women were trained in embroidery and in making seamless stockings and the children were sent to school.
In her later years Virginia experienced a decline in personnel as the women of the middle and upper classes were wary of tarnishing their reputation in dealing with corrupt people. The government withdrew its support for the Protectors. Virginia took responsibility for the sisters in Carrignano’s house. On 25 March 1637 she declared that the Republic would choose the Blessed Virgin as their protectress. She asked the Archbishop for the institution of the forty hours devotion which should start in Genoa at the end of 1642 and the preaching of the common missions (1643).
She became a peacemaker, intervening between the noble families and the knights. In 1647 she achieved reconciliation between the Archbishop and the government of the republic. Virginia was also a mystic and received many visions.
She died on 15 December 1651 at the age of 64. She was canonized in 2003. Sometime after her death her body was found to be incorrupt.
St Virginia Centurione Bracelli, pray for us.