Maria Domenica Mantovani
Italian nun (1862-1934)
Feast: 2 February (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
The Vatican record
- 26 May 2020 — Miracle through their intercession approved (decree list, 2020)
Who they were
Maria Domenica Mantovani was born at Castelletto di Brenzone, on Lake Garda, on 12 November 1862, the eldest of four children of a poor family that could not keep her at school. Blessed Giuseppe Nascimbeni, who came to the village as teacher and then parish priest, became her spiritual guide, and she his closest helper.
Together they founded the Little Sisters of the Holy Family to serve the poor, orphans and the sick, and she was its first superior. She died on 2 February 1934 after a few days' illness.
The miracles
A newborn girl — Bahía Blanca, Argentina — 6 March 1999
A baby girl fell from her bed the day after she was born, at the Italian Hospital in Bahía Blanca, and suffered a severe head injury that left her in a coma with a hopeless outlook. A Little Sister of the Holy Family, a nurse there, prayed to Mother Maria Domenica, and the baby recovered.
A twelve-year-old girl — Bahía Blanca, Argentina
A girl of twelve, born with spina bifida and paralysed in her legs, fell into continuous seizures and a coma, with repeated cardiac and respiratory arrests and severe lung and urinary infections. On the evening of 31 May her doctor, who had witnessed the first miracle in the same hospital, began to pray to Blessed Maria Domenica; the girl's mother and family joined in, and she recovered.
Why that counted as sanctity
The case of a newborn girl was examined by the Church's doctors and theologians and approved as a miracle, opening the way to beatification. The case of a twelve-year-old girl was examined by the Church's doctors and theologians and approved as a miracle on 26 May 2020, opening the way to canonisation. Canonisation followed on 15 May 2022 by Francis.
Connected on this site
- Giuseppe Nascimbeni Blessed“Maria Domenica Mantovani (12 November 1862 - 2 February 1934) was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious, and the co-founder of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family; she established them alongside Giuseppe Nascimbeni.” — Wikipedia
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints - biography of St Maria Domenica Mantovani, with both miracles
- CatholicPhilly / CNS, May 2022 - Pope to name 10 new saints
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints — promulgated decrees (causesanti.va), summarised in our own words
- Wikidata Q3847250 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Maria Domenica Mantovani (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.