Sunday, October 24, is the day when World Mission Day is celebrated, the young Italian Sandra Sabattini, who now becomes the first Blessed bride of the Catholic Church, was elevated to the altars.

 

Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, presided over in the Diocese of Rimini the beatification of the young woman who died at the age of 22, when she was engaged to marry her boyfriend, Guido Rossi.

 

The beatification was originally scheduled for June 14, 2020, but was suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic.

 

At the Holy Mass and after reviewing the biography of the young woman, Cardinal Semeraro read the decree in Latin with which Pope Francis inscribed Sandra Sabattini in the book of saints and blessed.

 

After the reading of the decree and before the ovation of the faithful present, the procession of the relic of the new blessed proceeded, a hair that Guido Rossi, who was Sandra’s fiancé, kept, and which is now placed next to the altar of the Cathedral of Rimini for his veneration.

 

The Bishop of Rimini, Mgr Francesco Lambiasi, then thanked the Pope and Cardinal Semeraro for the beatification of Sandra Sabattini.

 

In his homily, Cardinal Semeraro stressed that the young woman “is the first holy bride admitted to the honors of the altars.”

 

“Her bishop, in a book dedicated to Sandra Sabatini, wrote that the desire to serve the poor did not arise in her from an emotional question to do charity, but from a spiritual source, the love of God.”

 

“His heart was immersed in the bottomless sea of ​​God’s love for the poor and he saw that the solution to the problems is the resurrection of Jesus” and his “was a holiness lived in all areas of his life, with the last , putting all his enthusiasm and simplicity at the service of God.”

Cardinal Semeraro later recalled that Sandra’s father said that his daughter “gave a testimony that surprised me and her mother and we saw how she gave her money to those most in need. My daughter did not offer only material help but gave to those who needed shelter, without any judgment because she wanted to communicate the voice of the Lord.”

 

“Reading his diary you can see that his was a life devoted to charity,” the Cardinal stressed.

 

Sandra was born on August 19, 1961 in Riccione and lived her early years in the municipality of Misano Adriatico in the province of Rimini.

 

At the age of four, she and her family moved to the rectory of the parish of San Girolamo, where one of her uncles, Fr. Giuseppe Bonini, was parish priest.

 

Sandra began to write a personal diary on January 24, 1972. Three years later she met Fr. Oreste Benzi, founder of the Pope John XXIII Community, dedicated to serving the “last” of society.

 

After a missionary experience with the group, he returned home with a clear thought: “We have broken our bones, but these are people I will never abandon.”

 

At 16 he wrote: “Lord, you gave me a great gift, that of wanting to give my life to the poorest. I thank you for this, because, although I have not yet exploited it, you have deposited this great gift in me. I hope I can make it bear fruit and I hope I can understand how.”

 

When a poor person knocked on the door of her house, if she considered that her family had not given her enough, she would run after the person to complete the donation with her savings.

 

For a time she lived in a foster home in the summer of 1982, where she volunteered at a drug therapy community.

 

“If I really love, how can I endure a third of humanity starving, while maintaining my security or my financial stability? I will be a good Christian, but not a saint. Today there is an inflation of good Christians while the world needs saints! ”, Said the young woman.

 

After finishing high school, he considered whether to go immediately to Africa or pursue medicine, a career in which he finally enrolled at the University of Bologna, where he had very good grades.

 

On the morning of April 29, 1984, while on her way to a meeting of the Pope John XXIII Community, Sandra was run over by a car. He was in a coma for three days and died on May 2. He was only 22 years old.

 

On the last page of her diary, two days before the accident, Sandra wrote: “This life is not mine. This life, which evolves through a breath that is not mine, passes in a serene journey that is not mine.”

 

“There is nothing in this world that is yours. Sandra, notice! Everything is a gift in which the ‘Donor’ can intervene whenever and however he wants. Take care of the gift that has been given to you, making it more beautiful and full for when it is time.”