Cecilia Eusepi (17 February 1910 – 1 October 1928) was an Italian people Roman Catholic and a professed member from the Servite Order.[Basil Watkins "The Book of Saints" Bloomsbury Publishing 2015 ISBN 0567664155 pp 133][Formal Biography at the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints[1]] Since an early age she had desired to become a nun, but did not manage to do due to a severe case of tuberculosis which confined her to her bed.[
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In 1926 she met the young priest Gabriel Roschini who had recently arrived at Nepi, south or Rome, where Eusepi lived with her family.[Biography of Cecilia Eusepi by the Servite Order [2]] Roschini advised her to write a journal of her thoughts and prayers.
Eusepi died in 1928 of tuberculosis at age 18. In 1931 Roschini published a book titled "The Story of a Lilly" about her life.[Gabriele Roschini "Storia di un Giglio" Soc. Edit. Vita e Pensiero, 1931] The title reflected the fact that Eusepi had desired to be like a lily in imitation of the life of the Virgin Mary.[Il monitore ecclesiastico 1946 pp 236][Acta Apostolicae Sedis Vol 38, Issues 13-14 1946 pp 448]
Eusepi's beatification was celebrated in Nepi on 17, June 2012 and her case was mentioned by Pope Benedict XVI during his Angelus talk at the Vatican that day.[Pope Benedicy VI Angelus, June 17, 2012 [3]]
Life
Cecilia Eusepi was born in Monte Romano on 17 February 1910.["Studi storici sull'Ordine dei servi di Maria" Vol 17-19, 1968 Collegio S. Alessio Falconieri pp 255]
She was the last of eleven children to Paulina Mannucci; her brother Vincenzo was called for service during World War I. Eusepi received her baptism on 26 February from the archpriest Ugo Fulignoli. Her father died in April 1910 after ill health and on his deathbed entrusted his widow and children to his brother-in-law Filippo Mannucci.[ She received her Confirmation on 27 May 1917 from Bishop Luigi Olivares and her First Communion on 2 October 1917.][
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Eusepi was sent to a convent school (close to a Servite convent) on 5 September 1916 and later in 1922 she joined the Servite Order as a Third order. The Cistercians oversaw her education while at this convent school from 1916 until 1923 and in 1922 she became part of Catholic Action.[ On 14 February 1922 she received the scapular at the San Tolomeo ai Servi church and assumed the name of "Maria Angela". In 1923 she received permission from the local bishop to join the order as a postulant despite her uncle and mother's objections. Eusepi studied in Rome as well as in Pistoia and Zadar. From 1923 to 1926 she was among the Servite nuns in Pistoia but had to leave and go home due to tuberculosis which she was diagnosed with in summer 1926. The girl had also hoped to join the missions but her poor health prevented her from doing so and she returned home to Nepi on 23 October 1926.][
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During her final illness her religious practice was a comfort to members of the Catholic Action movement as well as seminarians and priests often visited her and sometimes asked her for her opinion on their homilies and other things. It was then that she met the Servite priest Gabriele M. Roschini who became her confessor and spiritual director and who instructed her to keep a journal; she started this on 29 May 1927 and ended entries on 12 September 1928 weeks before her death.[
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Eusepi died from tuberculosis on the night of 1 October 1928, reportedly singing songs to the Madonna on the date that she had predicted she would die after having a dream about Thérèse of Lisieux.[ On 16 March 1944 her remains were relocated to the San Tolmeo ai Servi church.][
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Beatification
The beatification process commenced in an informative process in Civita Castellana from 1939 until 1942. Theologians approved to her journal and other spiritual writings as being in accord with the Catholic faith on 22 November 1946.[
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The miracle for her beatification concerned the 4 August 1959 cure of Tommaso Ricci who survived what would have been a fatal traffic accident. This was investigated in a diocesan process and received C.C.S. validation on 10 March 2006; a medical board approved it on 1 October 2009 as did theologians on 12 December 2009 and the C.C.S. on 4 May 2010. Pope Benedict XVI approved this on 1 July 2010 and Cardinal Angelo Amato presided on the pope's behalf on 17 June 2012 in Nepi.
The current postulator for this cause is the Servite priest Franco M. Azzalli.
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