Maria Oliva Bonaldo

Maria Oliva Bonaldo, religious name Maria Oliva Bonaldo of the Mystical Body, (26 March 1893, Castelfranco Veneto – 10 July 1976, Rome) was an Italian religious sister in the Roman Catholic Church. The founder and Superior General of the Daughters of the Church was declared venerable by Pope Francis.

Early life and education Maria Oliva Bonaldo was born in 1893. Her parents were Giuseppe Antonio Bonaldo and Italica Dionisia Bianco. She was the fourth child of a family of nine. Her parents were first restaurateurs before they opened and operated a hotel in Bassano del Grappa where they settled. Her mother died on 13 February 1904, giving birth to her ninth child. Maria was 11 years old.

Bonaldo was educated in a school of the religious congregation of the Canossians until she was 14. Then, she went to school in Venice, where she obtained a teaching diploma in 1910.

Teacher Maria Oliva was sent to a primary school in Castello di Godego, Italy, for her first teaching assignment. She redistributed part of her salary to the poor, whom she called "Jesus," and began attending mass every morning. in which she developed the principles and physiognomy of what would later become the congregation of the daughters of the Church. Wishing to implement this project, she contacted Cardinal Adeodato Giovanni Piazza, Patriarch of Venice. On 24 June 1938, he authorized the creation of a "Daughters of the Church" community as a trial within the Canossian Daughters of Charity congregation. This first community was formed by Maria Oliva and four other nuns.

Daughters of the Church

On 21 April 1946, Cardinal Piazza gave his approval for the community of the Daughters of the Church to become a diocesan congregation (which received papal approval on 21 December 1949) and asked Pope Pius XII that Maria Oliva be released from her vow to remain a Canossian forever, to allow her to join the congregation she had founded. The Pope accepted. On 2 August 1946, in the church of Saint Maurice in Venice, Maria Oliva made her perpetual profession with 46 sisters within the congregation of the Daughters of the Church. She chose the name "Maria Oliva Bonaldo of the Mystical Body." She was elected Superior General of the congregation, a position she would hold until her death. Maria Oliva was called upon to serve as spiritual director. Among the people she followed were Igino Giordani and Giorgio La Pira,