Teresa Maria Manetti

Teresa Maria Manetti was born on 3 March 1846 in Campi Bisenzio as the daughter of Salvatore Manetti and Rosa Bigagli. Her brother was Adamo Raffaello. Manetti lived her life in a small village outside of Florence and her father died when she was three. She made her First Communion on 8 May 1859.

At the age of eighteen - at the time that she suddenly realized what her vocation was - she gathered a group of women who were all teachers; the group soon became exposed to the writings of Saint Teresa of Avila and soon enough a devotion to her grew. On 16 July 1876 she joined a group of Carmelite tertiaries and assumed the name of "Teresa Maria of the Cross"; she became a member of the Discalced Carmelites on 12 July 1888. Following this, Manetti started to establish schools in cities surrounding Florence, each with its own Carmelite teachers. The institution that she founded received papal approval from Pope Pius X on 27 February 1904 as the Carmelite Sisters of Saint Teresa. Their mission was to teach children, with an emphasis on orphans. Houses eventually opened in Syria and Palestine after the approval was granted.[2]

Manetti contracted a grave illness in 1908 which intensified until she died on 23 April 1910. Her remains were relocated on 22 April 1912.[3]

The cause for beatification commenced in Florence in the 1930s despite the formal opening of the cause under Pope Pius XII on 30 July 1944. Pope Paul VI approved the findings of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and approved the fact that she had lived a life of heroic virtue. As a result, on 23 May 1975, he declared her to be Venerable.

Pope John Paul II approved a miracle attributed to her intercession on 16 November 1985 and beatified her on 19 October 1986.

• Hagiography Circle
• Saints SQPN
• Carmelite Sisters of Saint Teresa