Her Life
Luisa Piccarreta was born and baptized on April 23, 1865, in the small town of Corato, province of Bari, Italy. The interior life of Luisa was kept hidden from all until she was about seventeen years old. Luisa lived until March 4, 1947. In 1948, Archbishop Reginaldo Giuseppe Maria Addazi, O.P. gave Luisa the title “Servant of God.” Seven years later, in 1994, the Sacred Congregation for the Causes of the Saints gave authorization to to open Luisa’s Cause for Beatification. The diocesan inquiry into her life was conducted until 2005, at which time Archbishop Giovan Battista Pichierri closed the inquiry with favorable result. Luisa’s Cause was then forwarded to Rome.
Early Life
Luisa Piccarreta was born and baptized on April 23, 1865, in the small town of Corato, province of Bari, Italy. Her parents were poor yet devout, and they had five daughters.
Luisa herself was very prayerful, as a result of many spiritual experiences from her earliest years. She found refuge and safety in her prayer to Jesus, and she had a deep devotion to His Blessed Mother. At the time of her First Holy Communion, Luisa began to clearly in her interior the voice of Jesus, who spoke to her this way frequently. Under the guidance of Jesus and Mary, Luisa become more and more focused on listening to the voice of God in her interior and always trying to please Him. She made in a novena of meditations to prepare for Holy Christmas, and developed a habit of praying with Christ during the twenty-four hour of His Passion.
Growth of her Interior Life
The interior life of Luisa was kept hidden from all until she was about seventeen years old. At that time, exterior signs of her interior state were noticed by her family. She would experience great suffering and an apparently unconscious “petrified” state, from which no one could wake her. Medical professionals were consulted; Luisa suffered greatly from the misunderstandings of the doctors and her family members. Finally, a priest was brought in. When he blessed Luisa, she immediately came out of her state of sufferings. This was to become the norm for Luisa for many decades of her life.
The Archbishop was contacted, and he ultimately designated a priest to perform this office for Luisa as part of the care of her soul. The misunderstandings had not ceased, however, and Luisa was still not always believed. Her confessors frequently placed Luisa under obedience to their orders, which Jesus Himself would then obey. A new phenomenon developed which lasted the rest of Luisa’s life. She became unable to eat normally; whenever she ate, she was forced to bring the food back up. However, witnesses describe this event as unlike sickness: after Luisa chewed and swallowed her food, it came up again whole and glistening.
Luisa opened her soul to the confessor assigned by her Archbishop. She told him that Jesus had asked her to be His willing victim for the world for a period of time, which she estimated to be 40 days. Her confessor permitted Luisa to stay in her bed for this time. However, Luisa’s understanding turned out to be incorrect. At the end of 40 days, Jesus wanted her victimhood to continue, and it did, for the rest of her life.
Suffering with Jesus
Luisa each night fell into her usual state of sufferings. Many times she suffered the pains of the crucifixion. In her great pains, Luisa rejoiced that she could provide relief to Jesus in His pains, and she sought to have more for that reason. When Jesus was not with her, Luisa suffered the even greater pain of His privation. The one who formed her entire life was gone, and she felt His absence as being devoid of life. Jesus showed Luisa the evils of the world and how much suffering these cause Him. She many times pleaded with our Lord to have mercy on creatures, offering herself as a victim to receive the justice of God for their sakes. She loved these images of God; she loved them for God’s own sake and for the sake of His love for them.
Jesus united Luisa to Himself in the Mystical Marriage when she was 33 years old, in 1888. That which was a culminating event in the lives of other saints was an early event in the life of Luisa. The fullness of her mission was yet to be revealed.
Her Spiritual Diaries
More than ten years later, on February 2, 1899, under direct and uncompromising obedience, Luisa began writing a spiritual diary. She had no desire to put on paper the record of her spiritual life. She had a small amount of schooling, only to about the 1st/2nd grade level, and she did not want anyone to know what happened in her interior. But she obeyed, writing everything that passed between herself and Jesus to submit to her confessor.
Upon reading what Luisa wrote in this simple notebook, her confessor gave her another task. In addition to continuing writing the diary, he now commanded that Luisa write all that had happened in her spiritual life up to this point. Again, Luisa obeyed despite strong reluctance to do so. This diary ultimately came to 36 volumes. “Volume 1”, as it is now known, is the book of Luisa’s earliest memories. “Volume 2” is the spiritual diary she wrote first. And Volumes 3-36 are Luisa’s diary entries from that time until 1938, when she was finally directed not to write anymore. Luisa began every Volume with a prayer to Jesus to give her strength to carry out the obedience of writing. The last entry was written by Luisa on December 28, 1938. Other works Luisa wrote out of obedience were about the 24 Hours of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ and daily mediations for the month of May in the Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will.
Trials of her Later Years
In the world, Luisa lived many hours of ordinary existence. Though she was confined to bed for 60 years (with never a disease or bedsore), she still worked and talked with people. Luisa was able to pay rent and support herself by making lace on the tombolo, and she instructed young girls in the craft as well. Visitors came. Luisa heard their troubles and always told them to trust in Jesus and His Divine Will. In time, she became called “Luisa La Santa” by the people of Corato, for they knew her words were light from God.
One of her visitors was St. Annibale Maria Di Francia, a religious priest who lived in Messina, on Sicily. St. Annibale, who founded the order of Rogationist Priests and the Daughters of Divine Zeal, visited Luisa and corresponded with her for the last seventeen years of his life. He had a deep love for reading Luisa’s writings and hearing from her about the Divine Will. St. Annibale eventually gave the first 18 Volumes of Luisa’s writings the nihil obstat, the authorization by the delegated Church official that the writings have been examined and found to contain nothing contrary to faith or morals. Archbishop Giuseppe Maria Leo of Trani put his imprimatur on the writings, the authoritative permission that they may be published. During his lifetime, St. Annibale published The Twenty-Four Hours of the Passion, along with his reflections on each hour, and worked to prepare Luisa’s Volumes for printing. He died, however, before his plans were carried out. Jesus informed Luisa that Fr. Annibale would complete this work from heaven. Another decision of Fr. Annibale was to build an orphanage in Corato to be run by the Daughters of Divine Zeal, where Luisa would live. St. Annibale was canonized by Pope St. John Paul II, and his statue was was blessed by Pope Benedict XVI and placed under the arch of the bells in the external wall of St. Peter’s Basilica.
There were additional publications of Luisa’s writings, which contained edits from her original documents. And there were translations, starting with the Hours of the Passion being translated into German. This project was conducted by Fr. Ludwig Beda, O.S.B. of Andesch Monastery, Upper Bavaria, Germany, for the publication of 55,000 copies of the Hours of the Passion.
Like her beloved Divine Spouse, Luisa was beset by authoritative opponents, even as her writings brought spiritual benefit to thousands. She was accused by members of the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office in 1930 of reaping financial rewards for her works—a thing she always refused to accept. And the practice of the priest calling Luisa from her usual state was questioned, despite the fact that this was instituted by her local Archbishop, and every priest assigned this duty received it directly from the Archbishop reigning at the time.
In 1938, an inquiry was opened by the Holy Office. 34 of Luisa’s volumes were taken from her, and three of her works, with annotations from another person, were placed on the List of Prohibited Books, as recorded in L’Osservatore Romano, September 11, 1938 for “excessive mysticism.” Luisa completely submitted herself to these actions, writing a letter fully expressing her obedience to the Church. With this, Luisa left the orphanage, which had been her home for ten years.
Her Death and Cause for Canonization
Luisa lived until March 4, 1947. It was not obvious to the doctors that she had actually died, because though her heart was not beating, they could still detect the flowing of blood through her veins. There was no rigor mortis in her limbs; however, because she had spent decades, day and night, sitting up in her bed (not even leaning on the pillows), Luisa’s spine could not be straightened out of her to lie down. A special coffin had to be constructed for her, and because she was so beloved by the people of Corato, it was made with glass windows for the people to see “Luisa la Santa” before she was laid to rest. They accompanied her body in a great funeral procession to the city cemetery.
The local archbishop of that time and those who followed in his office demonstrated their regard for Luisa Piccarreta. Only a month after her death, Archbishop Francesco Paolo Petronelli of Trani made sure to collect the information about Luisa’s rehabilitation by the Holy See. In 1948, Archbishop Reginaldo Giuseppe Maria Addazi, O.P. gave Luisa the title “Servant of God,” and he allowed the distribution of a relic prayer card of Luisa with a prayer for her beatification. Archbishop Addazi later decided that Luisa Piccarreta’s remains should be transferred into the church of Santa Maria Greca, located only yards away from Luisa’s longtime home. Archbishop Giuseppe Carata helped to establish the Pious Association Luisa Piccarreta in 1987. And seven years later, in 1994, the Sacred Congregation for the Causes of the Saints gave authorization to the Archbishop Carmelo Cassati, M.S.C., to open Luisa’s Cause for Beatification. The diocesan inquiry into her life was conducted until 2005, at which time Archbishop Giovan Battista Pichierri closed the inquiry with favorable result. Luisa’s Cause was then forwarded to Rome.
A detailed biography of Luisa Piccarreta The Sun of My Will, was written by Prof. Maria Rosaria Del Genio and published by Libreria Editrice Vaticana in 2014.