Maria Alfonsa of the Child Jesus (Elena Bruno)
Italian Handmaid Reparatrix of the Sacred Heart who served on mission in Ohio
Who they were
Born at Tarquinia and raised in Sicily, she entered the Handmaids Reparatrices of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1956 and went as a missionary to the community in Ohio, making her perpetual profession at Steubenville in 1964. Santiebeati gives her death as 15 October 1994 at Ganzirri near Messina, where the Hagiography Circle has 23 August 1994.
The miracles
No miracle has been approved. The cause is at its first stage.
Why that counted as sanctity
Her cause received the nihil obstat on 13 July 2001 and the diocesan inquiry ran from 21 June 2002 to 17 March 2009.
The cause
Maria Alfonsa of the Child Jesus (Elena Bruno) is named a Servant of God; the cause continues. Favours received, and offers of help, go to the postulation, the office that carries the cause forward: The cause of Maria Alfonsa of the Child Jesus (Elena Bruno).
Checked against the sources listed on 24 September 2026. Corrections welcome.