Benedetta Cambiagio Frassinello

Benedetta Cambiagio Frassinello was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Benedictine Sisters of Providence. Frassinello married to appease her parents in 1816 but the couple decided to lead a chaste life and both pursued a call to the religious life with Frassinello joining the Ursulines in Capriolo at Brescia. But husband and wife later reunited after setting out to establish schools for the education of girls and the pair moved back to Genoa where she founded her order in 1838 based on the Benedictine charism.

Frassinello's beatification was celebrated in 1987 and she was canonized as a saint in 2002.

Life Benedetta Cambiagio was born on 2 October 1791 in Langasco in Genoa as the last of six children to Giuseppe Cambiagio and Francesca Ghiglione. In 1818 the couple decided each to live a celibate life "as brother and sister" more so because he was so impressed with her holiness and her desire for the religious life. The couple took in Benedetta's sister Maria who was suffering from intestinal cancer and whose husband had left her. The pair cared for her until she died in July 1825.

Her former husband and five companions joined her in moving to Ronco Scrivia in the Genoa region on 16 July 1838. The group opened a school for girls there and that was a refinement on what had been done in Pavia. The postulation submitted the Positio dossier to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in 1979 while their historical consultants approved the cause on 29 April 1980. Theological experts also voiced their assent to the cause on 23 April 1985 as did the C.C.S. members later on 4 June 1985; Pope John Paul II confirmed that Frassinello possessed heroic virtue and so on 6 July 1985 titled her as Venerable.

The process for the miracle needed for beatification was investigated where it occurred in and it received C.C.S. validation on 17 January 1986. Medical experts believed this healing to be a miracle on 10 July 1986 as did theologians on 7 November 1986 and the C.C.S. on 23 December 1986. John Paul II confirmed the healing was a miracle on 3 January 1987 and later beatified Frassinello on 10 May 1987 in Saint Peter's Square. The second and final miracle needed for full sainthood was investigated much like the first and was validated on 24 September 1999; medical experts approved this on 20 December 2000 with the theologians and C.C.S. following suit. John Paul II approved this healing as a miracle on 20 December 2001 and on 26 February 2002 - at 11:00am in the Clementine Hall - confirmed the date for sainthood. John Paul II canonized Frassinello on 19 May 2002 in Saint Peter's Square.