Caterina Volpicelli
Italian saint
Feast: 28 December (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Caterina Volpicelli was born in Naples on 21 January 1839 into a family of the upper middle class that gave her a sound human and religious formation.
She founded the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart, devoted to the poor and the sick, and sought always to express Christian charity in works suited to the needs of her time. She is counted among the 'apostles of the poor and the outcast' of nineteenth-century Naples.
The miracles
The Dicastery's biography does not describe the miracles approved in the cause.
Why that counted as sanctity
A woman of comfortable Naples who became a Good Samaritan to the poor and sick of her city.
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints - biography: Caterina Volpicelli
- Wikidata Q298254 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Caterina Volpicelli (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.