Carla Ronci

Carla Ronci (11 April 1936 – 2 April 1970) was an Italian member of the Ancelle Mater Misericordiae of Macerata, a secular institute. She was declared venerable by Pope John Paul II on 7 July 1997.

Born in Rimini, Emilia-Romagna, Ronci spent most of her life in , one of the city's northern . Aged 14, she was drawn to the Ursuline Sisters Daughters of Mary Immaculate, with whom she later discerned a vocation. In 1961, following a short spell in the Ursuline novitiate, Ronci joined the secular institute Ancelle Mater Misericordiae of Macerata. She was notable for her service in her parish church, the Church of the Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel, and was particularly active in the church's liturgy, youth ministry, and catechesis. and often described as a "contemplative in action".

Early life Ronci was born on 11 April 1936 in the "Aiuto Materno" maternity hospital in Rimini, She was baptised two days later in the same hospital. The eldest of three children, she grew up in , a coastal, suburban north of Rimini, in the parish of the Church of the Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel. from her fifth grade, she learned to be a seamstress, and looked after a goat to procure fresh milk. In her spare time, Ronci was a babysitter and helped in the family shop. She would organise dressmaking workshops for young girls at her home, which became popular social events as well as catechetical classes, a yearly pilgrimage to a sanctuary, an annual children's festival, a play on the parish priest's birthday, and a fabric flower fundraiser for a Catholic university. including in animating the liturgy, the maintenance of the parish library,

In 1960, Ronci came into contact with the secular institute Ancelle di Mater Misericordiae of Macerata. After attending a course of spiritual exercises with them, and postulator for Sandra Sabattini.

Ronci was proclaimed Venerable by Pope John Paul II on 7 July 1997. A primary school in Torre Pedrera is named after Ronci. In April 2011, a square in Montecorvino Pugliano was dedicated to her. Her writings have been translated into German, Japanese and Polish, and a German-language website was dedicated to her in 2018.

Amici di Alberto e Carla, a biennial magazine published by the Diocese of Rimini in English and Italian, disseminates information about the lives of Ronci and Alberto Marvelli. In March 2018, the magazine reported 9,000 subscribers in Italian and 1,400 in English.

In summer 2009, the Centro Studi Lauretani, in collaboration with the Ancelle di Mater Misericordiae, hosted a devotional exhibition on Ronci's life in Loreto. A play about Ronci's life was due to be performed in Rimini's Church of San Martino di Bordonochio in February 2020, but was cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic.