Laura Meozzi

Who they were

Laura Meozzi was born in Florence on 5 January 1873 to a well-off, noble family, and later studied medicine in Rome. She became a Salesian sister in 1898 and worked mainly in Sicily until 1921, when she was chosen to lead the first Salesian missionary sisters sent to Poland.

In Poland she opened homes for orphaned and abandoned children, schools and workshops, earning the nickname 'mateczka' (little mother); she stayed in Poland throughout the German occupation of 1939-1945, once risking execution to smuggle unauthorised children and partisans' families out with a group of nuns and orphans. After the war she rebuilt a dozen houses in the new Polish territories. She died at Pogrzebien on 30 August 1951 and was declared Venerable on 27 June 2011.

The miracles

The Church has not yet approved a miracle in this cause.

Why that counted as sanctity

Salesian sister who led the order's first mission to Poland from 1921 and sheltered orphans, refugees and partisans through the Second World War; declared Venerable on 27 June 2011.