St

1672 - 1732

     In her life and work, Saint Lucy Filippini anticipated the spirit and activity of the Church today.
She was in the best sense of the term, a modern woman and a modern saint. With boundless love of God, she sought to reform the degraded customs of her times. She directed souls to virtuous living. Her activities were divided between the work of the schools for young girls and the social apostolate: spiritual exercises for women, visits to needy families, and care of the sick.
     With Cardinal Marcantonio Barbarigo, Lucy is co-founder of the Pontifical Institute of the Religious Teachers Filippini. Lucy was sixteen when, at the Cardinal's suggestion, she left Corneto, Tarquinia, where she was born, and went to the Monastery of Saint Clare in Montefiascone to prepare for her future apostolate. In 1692, the Cardinal asked her to direct the schools in his diocese. In 1707 she was called by Pope Clement XI to establish schools in Rome. Her work spread throughout Italy.
     The Religious Teachers Filippini also serve in England, Ireland, Brazil, Ethiopia, Switzerland, and India. In the United States, the Province of Saint Lucy staffs 46 schools and missions in thirteen dioceses and two archdioceses. Located in the suburbs of Morristown, New Jersey, Villa Walsh is headquarters for the Sisters who are missioned to serve in a variety of apostolic works which include parish ministry, religious education, retreat ministry, elementary and secondary schools, and child day care centers.

     Saint Lucy wanted to be "many Lucys." Her wish has come true. For three centuries she inspired her followers to carry on the apostolic work of dedicated teaching and social involvement. The Religious Teachers Filippini work to build the kingdom and to bring new hope to God's people through vibrant christian living in today world.
     Saint Lucy Filipini, of the Roman nobility, was born January 13, 1672, and baptized on the same day. She received Holy Communion at a very early age, and at 12 was made catechist of the children of the Parish. At 16, she was taken under the tutorship of Cardinal Marcantonio Barbarigo, Bishop of Montefiascone and Tarquinia, the town of her birth.
     In submission to the desire of the Cardinal, she became the foundress of the Institute of the Maestre Pie Filippini (Religious Teachers Filippini), devoted to the Christian education of Youth. Pope Clement XI caled her to Rome to open schools for Roman girls. Since then the Popes have taken her Institute under their special protection and jurisdiction. Thus the Mother House was established in the Eternal City.
     Besides being a teacher, she was also a great missionary possessing the power of reading the secrets of souls. She had a motherly anxiety for wayward girls and was always successful in bringing them back to God. Her love for the poor knew no bounds. Self-surrender made her a martyr of obedience, and her love for Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament made her a seraphim of love and miraculously drew to her lips her Eucharistic Lord.
     Her body lies incorrupt under the altar dedicated her in the Cathedral of Montefiascone, where she died March 25, 1732. She was beatified in 1926 and canonized in 1930 by Pope Pius XI.