Maria Anna Sala

Maria Anna Sala (21 April 1829 – 24 November 1891) was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious who was a member of the Sisters of Saint Marcellina. She served throughout her life as an educator across the northern Italian cities and carried out her work in the name of God.

Sala continued to serve as a teacher even when it became known in 1883 that she had contracted throat cancer though the progression of the illness made her duties far more difficult to perform. She died of the disease almost a decade after contracting it.

Her beatification was celebrated on 26 October 1980.

Life Maria Anna Sala was born in Brivio on 21 April 1829 as the fifth of eight children to Giovanni and Giovannina Sala; two of her siblings were Genoveffa and Lucia. Sala was baptized mere hours after she was born.

Her education was overseen at home until such time when she could attend an actual school. one occasion her father protested when she gave alms to a poor man: "Right now we need to think of ourselves!" Sala responded: "God will think of us". While being at home she and one of her sister's liked to visit the Oratory of Saint Leonard. She returned - in 1848 - to the congregation as a postulant once the situation of her household eased; she professed her final vows on 13 September 1852. She had entered the order alongside her sisters Genoveffa and Lucia who were admitted into the order's school as students.

In 1883 she learned that she had contracted throat cancer and over time experienced a series of neck deformities that were quite visible.

The process and the ratification of her writings took place despite the fact that the formal introduction of the cause did not come until 28 January 1959 under Pope John XXIII when the Congregation of Rites approved the cause and granted Sala the title Servant of God. One final process was held again in Milan from 28 May 1962 to 1964; a decree that ratified the process was signed on 28 May 1966.

Upon the acknowledgement of Pope Paul VI of her life of heroic virtue she was proclaimed to be Venerable on 14 April 1977.

The approval of one miracle attributed to her intercession allowed for Pope John Paul II to preside over her beatification on 26 October 1980.