Clelia Merloni

Clelia Merloni (10 March 1861 – 21 November 1930) was an Italian Roman Catholic nun and the founder of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Merloni was destined to follow her father into the business world but renounced his anti-religious sentiment and instead went down the religious path. Internal complications led to Merloni's fall from grace and she went into self-imposed exile where she received a dispensation to break from her religious vows. She later rejoined the congregation as a nun not long before her death.

The beatification process commenced in 1988 under Pope John Paul II and she was titled as a Servant of God. Pope Francis confirmed her heroic virtue on 21 December 2016 and named her as Venerable. Francis later confirmed a miracle attributed to her in 2018 and she was beatified in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome on 3 November 2018.

Life Clelia Merloni was born on 10 March 1861 in Forlì to Gioacchino Merloni and Teresa Brandinelli. She was baptized mere hours after her birth in the diocesan cathedral of Santa Croce from Bishop Pietro Paolo Trucchi.

Merloni's mother died in 1864 and her maternal grandmother became her guardian. Her father remarried in 1866 to Maria Giovanna Boeri and both her grandmother and stepmother did their best to instill religious values and a love of God in her. Her father became engrossed in his work and his rising socio-economic status and this led to him exiting the faith and becoming instead an anti-clerical Freemason.

Despite her frail health her father sought to provide her with the best education that was possible to attain in order to prepare her for following him in his business.

Merloni later joined the Figlie di Santa Maria della Divina Provvidenza – the order that Luigi Guanella founded – and while there amongst the congregation in Como realized a call to form an order that would be devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ. She founded that order – on 30 May 1894

Beatification miracle The story of the miracle dates back to 14 March 1951, when the Brazilian doctor, Pedro Ângelo de Oliveira Filho, was stricken suddenly by a progressive paralysis of all four limbs and was rushed to Santa Casa de Misericordia di Ribeirão Preto Hospital. He was diagnosed with an ascending progressive paralysis known as Landry's paralysis or Guillain-Barré syndrome. Within a few weeks the paralysis worsened and spread, resulting in acute respiratory failure. It eventually caused difficulty in swallowing.

The prognosis was fatal in view of the seriousness of the condition and the limited medical options for a cure which were available at that time. When the paralysis reached the throat, the doctors discontinued treatments. On March 20 the doctors informed the family that he would not survive the night. With that news the patient's wife, Angelina Oliva, sought out Sr. Adelina Alves Barbos to ask for prayers. The sister gave her a novena to Mother Clelia along with a holy card containing a piece of fabric from the veil that Mother Clelia wore. Sr. Adelina approached the sick man and gave him a cup of water in which she had placed the tiny relic. Although he was gravely ill, he managed to take some of the water. After a few minutes, those present noticed that he was able to swallow.

When the doctor on call arrived in the morning and saw the patient cured, he exclaimed that it was a miracle. Pedro Ângelo continued to improve, and within three weeks he was walking normally. On 6 May he was released from the hospital for his healing was complete, permanent, and without relapse or signs of any symptoms. The doctor died on 25 September 1976, of cardiac arrest, 25 years after his miraculous cure.