Annunciata Astoria Cocchetti

Annunciata Astoria Cocchetti was born in Brescia on 9 May 1800 as the third of six children to Marcantonio Cocchetti and Giulia Albarelli; two siblings were Vincenzo and Giuseppina.[1][3] She was baptized on the following 12 May in the Church of Santa Maria Assunta with the names of "Annunciata Astoria". Her mother was the first to die due to pneumonia while her father followed not long after - he was a Napoleonic soldier; three brothers died before her mother as infants.

She was orphaned at the age of seven - in 1807 - and was taken to live with her grandmother. Her uncle Carlo - from Milan - decided to take both Giuseppina and Vincenzo to live with him while Cocchetti was sent to her grandmother's.[3] She received her First Communion and her Confirmation - on 28 February 1810 - from the Bishop of Brescia Gabrio Maria Nava.[1] At the age of seventeen - in 1817 - she used her grandmother's home as a school for poor girls. She received her education at Rovato and in 1822 moved her studies to Cemmo Valcamonica.[1] Her grandmother died on 19 April 1823 which prompted her to leave her home and move in with her uncle in Milan.[2] She resided there until 1829.[3] During this time she came into contact with Luca Passi - who was in the process of establishing his own religious congregation - and remained in touch with him until his death in 1866. Cocchetti learned of a school in Brescia devoted to female education and decided to join it; one evening in 1831 she decided not to attend a gala evening with Carlo at the Teatro alla Scala and instead left a letter on his desk and travelled to Cemmo Valmonica.[2][3]

In 1821 Erminia Panzerini (d. 2 May 1842) opened in Brescia a school for girls and entrusted it to the direction of Cocchetti in 1831; it was in 1831 she accepted a teaching position from Panzerini at this school with the encouragement of her spiritual director.[2] She realized in this place that her true purpose in life was to the education of the poor. At this point Passi wanted the two women to join his own order and aggregate the school to it but this was hindered due to Panzerini's 1842 death. She travelled to Venice in 1842 to establish her order - all the more since Passi was there - and returned in October with two prospective religious; the three made their solemn profession into Cocchetti's new order in 1843.[3] From this school she formed her own religious congregation - the Suore di Santa Dorotea di Cemmo - and established it on 9 October 1842 after being vested on the previous 3 October. The institute later received the diocesan approval - on 5 February 1855 - of the Bishop of Brescia Giacomo Maria Corna Pellegrini. Her order promoted the Spiritual Exercises as an appropriate focus for retreats.[2]

On the morning of 18 March 1882 she went to Mass but felt ill after receiving the Eucharist. She was diagnosed with a fever as well as disease ravaging her. She received the Last Rites and the Viaticum not long after this. Cocchetti died on 23 March 1882 and her remains were relocated on 22 January 1951. The order received the papal decree of praise of Pope Pius XI on 20 March 1934 and received the formal papal approval - on 10 May 1941 - of Pope Pius XII. Her congregation now works in numerous nations such as Argentina and Uganda. As of 2005 there were 336 religious in a total of 59 houses.[1]

Tomb of Blessed Annunciata Coccheti, St. Dorothy's Chapel, Mother House, Cemmo

The beatification process commenced in the Diocese of Brescia in an informative process that opened on 6 August 1951 and started the process of collecting documentation on Cocchetti's life and saintliness. The process concluded its business on 17 February 1955 while theologians voiced approval for all of her writings as being in line with the magisterium of the faith not long following this. An apostolic process was also held to continue the work of the previous process.

The formal introduction of the cause - under Pope Paul VI - granted Cocchetti the posthumous title of Servant of God on 22 June 1972 as the first official stage in the process.

Historians met to assess the cause on 27 May 1986 and approved it of not possessing obstacles that would prevent its continuation. The Positio was handed to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in 1986 for their assessment but was not transferred to consulting theologians until the C.C.S. validated the two previous processes on 17 October 1987. The theologians then met and approved the contents of the dossier on 27 September 1988 while the C.C.S. did likewise on 27 March 1989.

Cocchetti was proclaimed to be Venerable on 13 May 1989 after Pope John Paul II acknowledged the fact that the late religious had lived a model life of heroic virtue.

The miracle needed for her beatification involved the cure of Bortolina Milesi - aged thirteen - who had severe bowel complications that could have proven fatal had it not been for the intercession of Cocchetti. The process for investigating the miracle took place in 1952 and concluded in 1953.[3] The process received the validation of the C.C.S. on 17 October 1987 and was passed to a medical board who approved the miracle on 18 October 1989. The theologians also approved it on 19 January 1990 while the C.C.S. did too on 24 April 1990.

John Paul II approved the healing of Milesi to be a genuine miracle on 10 July 1990 and beatified Cocchetti in Saint Peter's Basilica on 21 April 1991.

The current postulator that is assigned to the cause is the Rev. Giovanni Scarabelli.

• Hagiography Circle