Giovannina Franchi
Italian Roman Catholic nun and blessed (1807-1872)
Feast: 23 February (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
The Vatican record
- 9 December 2013 — Miracle through their intercession approved (decree list, 2013)
Who they were
Giovannina Franchi was born in Como on 24 June 1807. She gave her life and her inheritance to nursing the sick and the poor in the poorest parts of the city, and founded the Nursing Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows, whose work in health care still continues in Como and beyond. She died in Como on 23 February 1872 of smallpox, probably caught from one of the people she was nursing.
The miracles
A newborn girl — Italy
A newborn baby girl was healed completely and without after-effects; the Vatican's medical consultants found the healing scientifically inexplicable. The sources checked do not describe her illness.
She was beatified in Como on 20 September 2014. One more approved miracle is needed for canonisation.
Why that counted as sanctity
The case of a newborn girl was examined by the Church's doctors and theologians and approved as a miracle on 9 December 2013, opening the way to beatification. Beatification followed on 20 September 2014 by Cardinal Angelo Amato, for Pope Francis.
The cause
Giovannina Franchi has been beatified; the cause continues. Favours received, and offers of help, go to the postulation, the office that carries the cause forward: Diocese of Como: the cause of Blessed Giovannina Franchi.
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints - biography of Blessed Giovannina Franchi
- Diocese of Como - the beatification of Giovannina Franchi
- Wikipedia - Giovannina Franchi
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints — promulgated decrees (causesanti.va), summarised in our own words
- Wikidata Q15618153 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Giovannina Franchi (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.