A great Saint has gone to Heaven

A great Saint has gone to Heaven

Mother Providence, in the world Anna Maria Andreani, was born in Cornale of Pradalunga (BG) on 19 August 1933, of wise and religious parents. She was a Foundress of numerous Religious Families.

Since her childhood she felt a strong vocation of donating herself to the Lord for the salvation of souls. At the age of about twenty she began to work as a teacher, either with the youth or with factory workers.

She was also a headmistress in a seaside holiday camp for children in Varazze, in Liguria, and as an assistant in others, where she helped poor children free. She was mother of orphans in St. Vincent’s Work and taught poliomyelitics, mongoloids and persons of unsound mind in Bergamo and Varazze. She taught also in two preventive sanatoriums in Selvino (BG) and Sovere (BG), and cured sick children from close up.

She worked in the Italian Catholic Movement as a propagandist.

During her youth her vocation of losing the world and retiring herself in a Carmelite cloister grew more and more.

God’s ways are usually different from men’s.

At the age of thirty, exactly on 22 February 1964, she offered herself for the conversion of a Priest. The following night was hit by a bilateral glaucoma, and lost completely the light of her eyes.

After many surgery operations, with no good results, she had the joy of meeting His Holiness the Pope Paolo VI on 28 May 1969, thanks to Fr. Francesco Cellerino, a Carmelite. After showing Him her intention of entering into a Carmel, the Pope answered: “Go around as a pilgrim until you find a Bishop who will accept you. Receive all those children who go searching for a light”.

“His Holiness, I am blind!” she answered.

The Pope added: “ Do not fear; the Providence will be always with you”

Her Spiritual Father, Fr. Fernando D’Urbano, a Camillian Missionary, now dead, said to her: “Obey the Pope; let someone put you on a train… and even though you cannot see, God sees… Do not bring any baggage or money with you. Catch the first passing train without knowing where it is directed. The Providence of God will guide you. Do not ask anything of anyone, let others search for you”. Then she remembered the Gospel: “The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray you therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He would send forth labourers into His harvest. Go your ways; behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves. Carry neither purse, nor scrip nor shoes: and salute no man by the way. And into whatsoever house you enter, first say: Peace be to this house” (Lc 10, 2-5).

On a train, she suddenly received the first Providence through a military man who paid for her ticket to Rome.

From a hand to another, from a town to another one, under the guide of her Spiritual Father she often called by telephone, she travelled for seven years like a pilgrim, enriching her life with great experiences of every kind.

During those years she also found the time to write, seated on a stone, by the Lord’s eyes, the Love of God towards man and the different answers of man towards God.

Many times she used to remember some events happened during her pilgrimage: one night a homeless man shared his portion of bread with her while sitting alone on a bench, without seeing his face; a painful story of him who, even though he had a place to take her in, didn’t do it.

Many other episodes can be remembered, for example: the poor man who gave her a plate of supper soup; or when she was staying under the sky with a broken leg, and suddenly appeared a truck driver who picked her up and took to a hotel and also paid the bill.

During all that time, searching for her vocation, she realized that God talks above all through the humble, the alone, the abandoned, and the desperate.

God was preparing for her the hard and painful way of the Foundations.

Under the protection and guide of His Eminence the Cardinal Joseph Siri, she had the joy of being called Mother of many spiritual sons, together with a Priest, full of light and given to her by God as a companion along her way.

His Excellence Mons. Giuseppe Franciolini, Bishop of Cortona, with the consent of His Eminence the Cardinal Siri, gave her the Carmelite religious uniform. During that ceremony the Bishop said that, as a foundress, she had to be called also as: Madre Provvidenza.

In twenty-five years of work in the Church and for the Church, we have formed together, by God’s help, 150 priests who were sent all over the world. They were not only Italian but also priests coming from all Continents. Thus we opened houses not only in Italy but also in many countries in the world: in India, Philippines, Samoa, Angola, West Indies, Colombia, Ecuador, Vietnam, Myanmar, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina.

The missionary foundations were of different kind, both active and contemplative life. The spirit is particularly that of living and communicating a deep faith.

The main finality is that of helping the Priests who are in difficulty and that of taking care of the formation of numerous seminarists by opening seminaries both in Italy and abroad. Anyway, the Founder is always God: we have been only His supporters.

His Eminence the Cardinal Siri wanted Mother Providence to dedicate herself, like a real mother, to all the necessities of the candidates, whether they were spiritual or material ones, such as: the clothing, the feeding and the general order. He proposed to her also to edit a booklet for lay friends called “Svegliarino”, with the supplement “Missionarium”.

To write and help were always a need for her soul. There had been instituted, indeed, also another family, besides the religious ones, called “Mother Providence’s sons”.

The Mother always received many letters from a lot of people who asked for help and prayers, and she always strived to help and comfort them.

It is written in the Gospel indeed: “ Ask and you’ll be given; search and you’ll find; knock and you’ll be opened” (Mt 7,7).

Now, after so much work for the building of numerous houses, also overseas, despite her bad physical condition, after many sufferings, she retired into her house in Pradalunga near Bergamo, where she could find a little time to cure herself. She had spent several years often traveling night and day to give the Church numerous Priests and Nuns.

She found sufficient time to dictate her spiritual daughters who accompanied her, whatsoever she felt in her heart for the benefit of the people.

This is in short her story that stopped on 16 June 2002 after a terrible breathing attack.

The Mother suffered from different and many illnesses, such as: diabetes, glaucoma, osteoporosis, …

The funeral was held on last 19 June, at 16,30. Hundreds of people were present at it and about sixty Priests celebrated the Holy Mass.

Henceforth, we have alas a difficult task to achieve: to keep on the work undertaken by the Mother for the benefit of all the people who often met her and asked for help and prayers.

All those who had known her cried, since they realized to have lost a real friend and an infallible advisor. The Mother helped thousands of people. Now we are sure she will help from Paradise.

Fr. Luigi Duilio Graziotti

Founder with Mother Providence