Virginia Centurione Bracelli
Italian saint (1587-1651)
Feast: 15 December (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
Virginia Centurione was born in Genoa on 2 April 1587, daughter of Giorgio Centurione, later doge, and Lelia Spinola. Drawn to the cloister from childhood, she had to accept the marriage her father arranged on 10 December 1602 with Gaspare Grimaldi Bracelli, a rich young heir given to dissipation and gambling. They had two daughters, Lelia and Isabella.
Widowed, she devoted herself to God, helped the poor in many ways, supported country churches and founded and led the Hundred Ladies of Mercy, Protectors of the Poor of Jesus Christ, officially recognised by the Senate of the Republic in 1635.
The miracles
The Dicastery's biography does not describe the miracles approved in the cause.
Why that counted as sanctity
A doge's daughter, unhappily married, who as a widow became mother of Genoa's poor.
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints - biography: Virginia Centurione Bracelli
- Wikidata Q436723 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Virginia Centurione Bracelli (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.