Brigida Morello

Brigida Morello Zancano (17 June 1610 – 3 September 1679), born Brigida Morello, was an Italian Roman Catholic widow and later a nun of the Ursuline Sisters of Mary Immaculate that she herself had established in her widowhood. She would assume the name of "Brigida of Jesus" when she founded her congregation.

On 15 March 1998 she was beatified and granted the title of Blessed. One miracle received approval from Pope John Paul II in order for her to be beatified and another must be found for her to be canonized. She is the patron for widows and for her order.

Life Brigida Morello was born on 17 March 1610 in Genoa as the sixth of eleven children to Nicolò Morello and Livinia Borzese. She made a vow to remain chaste after her husband died and tried to join the female branch of the Order of Friars Minor but was rejected due to her widowhood.

She moved and became a spiritual student of the Jesuits in Piacenza in 1640 and also placed herself under their spiritual direction. The process had been tasked with collecting all available documentation that would support the cause while undertaking an exhaustive mission to assemble writings that Morello herself had written. Her writings were placed under the care of theologians who had to determine if her writings remained in line with the faith and approved them in two blocs on 14 November 1934 and then a while later on 24 May 1950.

Pope Paul VI opened the next stage of her beatification on 31 May 1971. On 29 April 1980 she was declared to be Venerable after Pope John Paul II confirmed that Morello led a life of heroic virtue.

Investigations into an alleged miracle lasted less than a week in a diocesan process from 28 August 1995 until 30 August. It was validated as a process that performed to the set criteria in 1996 in Rome and received papal approval on 18 December 1997. John Paul II beatified her on 15 March 1998.