St. Mary Mazzarello

Mary Mazzarello (1837-1881) was born near Genoa, Italy.  She joined the Pious Union of Mary Immaculate while young.  It was almost like a religious order, with a rule of its own and a schedule of devotional and charitable works. Thus, when a typhoid epidemic broke out at Mornese in 1860, the Sodalists were asked to take care of the stricken.

She and Don Bosco established, in 1872, the Daughters of Our Lady Help of Christians, to be known more familiarly as the "Salesian Sisters" (after St. Francis de Sales). Its earliest members were former members of the Sodality of the Daughters of Mary Immaculate. By 1900, there were nearly eight hundred foundations.

Mary died at Nizza Monferrato in 1881, and was canonized in 1951. Her Feast Day is May 14.