Maria Cristina Brando
Italian saint and foundress (1856-1906)
Feast: 20 January (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
The Vatican record
- 17 September 2014 — Miracle through their intercession approved (decree list, 2014)
Who they were
Adelaide Brando was born in Naples on 1 May 1856, and as a child resolved: 'I want to become a saint at any cost.' Taking the name Maria Cristina of the Immaculate Conception, she founded the Sisters, Expiatory Victims of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, devoted to adoration of the Eucharist and the Christian education of children.
She died on 20 January 1906, urging her sisters to be holy and to keep their Rule faithfully.
The miracles
A healing in the Philippines — Philippines — 1992
A healing in the Philippines in 1992 was found by the Vatican's medical board in 2001 to be rapid, complete, lasting and scientifically inexplicable.
A second miracle was approved for her canonisation by decree of 17 September 2014; the sources checked do not describe it.
Why that counted as sanctity
The case of a healing in the Philippines was examined by the Church's doctors and theologians and approved as a miracle on 20 December 2001, opening the way to beatification. Beatification followed on 27 April 2003 by John Paul II. Canonisation followed on 17 May 2015 by Francis.
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints - biography of St Maria Cristina Brando
- Holy See - homily at the canonisation of four Blesseds, 17 May 2015
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints — promulgated decrees (causesanti.va), summarised in our own words
- Wikidata Q3847227 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Maria Cristina of the Immaculate Conception Brando (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.