Dec. 3, 1845: Barbara Micarelli was born in Sulmona to Bernardino Micarelli and Celestina Santini; second to the last of seven children. She is baptized on the same day in Sulmona’s “San Panfilo” Cathedral.
Also in this cathedral on July 8, 1857, she was administered the Sacrament of Confirmation by Bishop Giovanni Sabatino, Bishop of Valva and Sulmona. In 1857 her family moved to L’Aquila, her parents’ hometown. In this city on October 4,1858, Barbara received her First Communion in the St. Paul Boarding School, from Archbishop Luigi Filippi.
She is a young girl when a serious illness knocks at her door, but she is miraculously healed through the intercession of St. Joseph, as she tells it:
In my early twenties I fell seriously ill. On the verge of death I was miraculously healed by the glorious St. Joseph, my very special protector. With the healing I had a clear and precise vision of what I had to do in the years of life that the Lord mercifully still granted me: to consecrate myself to the good of the poor, the orphaned, and the abandoned, and moreover to become a spiritual mother of souls by creating an Institute of Sisters who would work with me in the Church of God.
Suor Maria Giuseppa discovered that in life time is received as a gift and is something so precious that the only way not to waste it is to live it in charity. There, in the eyes of her neighbor, of the weakest, she recognizes Jesus to be loved and served.
From that moment that it pleased the Lord in the jests of his high wisdom to choose me, a most vile and useless instrument to put to the work of this institution, I had the powerful inspiration that from the Father St. Francis alone I should receive light, guidance and support. At that moment I felt from Father Saint Joseph perfectly released to the Poor Man of Assisi.
In these few and precise words, Barbara clearly outlines her vocation:
to live charity in the Church with her daughters, according to Franciscan spirituality, following the footsteps of her Father St. Francis, inspired by the mystery of Bethlehem.
Under the guidance of Father Eusebio da Pratola, followed by the pastoral care and wise counsel of the Archbishop of L’Aquila, Msgr. Luigi Filippi, she begins her new journey to respond to the Love that calls her to collaborate for the building of His Kingdom in the world. The Lord is calling her to consecration on the path of St. Francis of Assisi.
Barbara to Suor Maria Giuseppa
It is winter 1879, the cold is severe and Barbara’s health condition is not the best.
P. Bernardino advises his spiritual daughter to postpone the day of her investiture to wait for milder weather… Barbara could not wait:
Let today be the fortunate spring and let me be led thither. That God of tomorrow is also now. God is my spring, my life and health. To do his will is my only breath.
Thus in Christmas 1879 she received the habit of the same Father Bernardino of Portogruaro, Minister General of the Friars Minor in the Cappella delle Suore della Compassione in Rome, taking the name Suor Maria Giuseppa di Gesù Bambino and thus giving rise to the Institute of the Franciscan Tertiaries of the Infant Jesus.
“To be all of the born child of Bethlehem,” she repeats this invitation in a letter to her sisters and shows that the roots of her heart and her “Yes” lie in the mystery of humility and charity of Christmas. All her care is for the poor, the little ones, those living on the margins, the orphans, the sick.
The investiture of Suor Maria Giuseppa was followed, in February 1880, by that of her first spiritual daughter, Caterina Vicentini, who took the name di Suor. Maria Francesca di S. Giuseppe and, in the following March, by that of the first six companions, including Sr. Carmela.
The seed sown continues to grow and prepares a rich bloom. The small fraternity embodies Suor Maria Giuseppa’s evangelical ideal in a poor, simple, joyful lifestyle that traces back to the beginnings of Franciscanism. Moreover, Mother’s desire from the beginning is to “be a Franciscan of observance” (Lett. 162)
Everyday courage
The family that forms around Suor Maria Giuseppa is a small group of young women who see in her support, guidance. The problems to be faced are many and range from taking in postulants, caring for the sisters to providing for the needs of the little girls taken in.
This does not dampen the enthusiasm of the beginnings that takes the form of daily courage, a trust in providence that will never fail to provide the means to live day by day.
The flowering was not long in coming: having failed to open a house in Rome, in November 1885 she opened the house in Guardiagrele (Chieti): it was the first sprout of the new Institution; in August 1888 that of S. Maria degli Angeli – Assisi,in the shadow of the Portiuncula where Mother moved with other sisters and where she brought the novitiate.
Early difficulties
and moving away to Sardinia
The seed bearing fruit.
A few years pass from that poor beginning but soon, after an initial period of blossoming and enthusiasm comes the time of trial, in which the infirmity of Suor Maria Giuseppa’s health is aggravated by the many obstacles and inexplicable hostility of those around her. To God who wanted her in the Church as Foundress and Mother she responds with the loving and humble offering of her whole self; for Him she suffers by paying in person for the evil received and in return Love draws her to Himself along the path of the Cross. From that mystery of Love and Sorrow she draws the light to continue her journey of charity and continuous and untiring service to the poor.
In 1894 she was forced to resign as Mother General and, with the opportunity to open a house in Sardinia, was removed from the Institute. There she became seriously ill and, although she asked numerous times to return to Assisi, she received no answer.
In the spring of 1909 she returns to S. Maria degli Angeli but in vain knocks on the door of the house because the sisters do not welcome her. TheShe goes up, then, to Assisi where she is hosted by the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Assisi and in their house dies forgiving and begging for forgiveness on April 19, 1909.
Thus, as poor clay in the hands of the Father, Suor Maria Giuseppa was made conformable to the Beloved, causing the same features of Christ the Lord that shine in the Bethlehem grotto to shine in her face.
clay in the hands of the Father