Luisa Guidotti Mistrali
Italian Roman Catholic physician, missionary and venerable (1932-1979)
The Vatican record
- 17 December 2022 — Heroic virtue declared — title Venerable (decree list, 2022)
Who they were
Luisa Guidotti Mistrali (16 May 1932 – 6 July 1979) was an Italian laywoman of the Roman Catholic Church who worked in the missions in Rhodesia. She was a member of the Women's Medical Missions Association. Guidotti tended to the ill in several hospitals across Rhodesia and was even noted for taking care of Robert Mugabe's mother on one occasion. Her work saw hospitals expand to treat a greater number of patients and her work was appreciated nationwide which in part led to charges against her being dropped after she was accused of treating a guerrilla which she had in fact done. Her beatification process opened in 1995 in Modena.
Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), until this page is written up in full.
The miracles
The Church has declared this person’s heroic virtue, which is what the title Venerable means. One approved miracle is needed before beatification.
Why that counted as sanctity
Limited information available on this saint.
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints — promulgated decrees (causesanti.va), summarised in our own words
- Wikidata Q18812033 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Luisa Guidotti Mistrali (CC BY-SA)
Not yet written up in full. The dates and the step marked “Vatican record” come from the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints; the rest comes from Wikidata and is not yet checked.