Paula Frassinetti

Paula Frassinetti is an Italian saint in the Roman Catholic Church and foundress of the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Dorothy (aka, Congregazione Suore di S. Dorotea della Frassinetti). Her feast day is June 11.

Life Paula Frassinetti was born March 3, 1809, in Genoa, Italy to Giovanni Battista Frassinetti, a cloth merchant, and his wife Angela. The third of five children, her four brothers all became priests. When she was nine years old, her mother died and an aunt came to help with the household. Three years later her aunt died, and at the age of twelve, Frassinetti assumed the responsibility.

At the age of nineteen, Frassinetti went to stay with her brother Giuseppe Frassinetti, a priest at the seaside village of Quinto in Liguria. In 1834 she and six other women formed a small community called the "Daughters of Holy Faith". Giuseppe and members of the parish started a small school in a church that had been dedicated to Clare of Assisi. The sisters taught in the school. They went to Genoa to help during a breakout of cholera. Later the sisters established a presence in Malta, Portugal, and Brazil. In the United Kingdom the sisters run an International Student's Residence and are involved in Parish Ministry.

She died on June 11, 1882, after a bout with pneumonia following several strokes.

Her body was reported to be found to be incorrupt in 1906. She was canonized on March 11, 1984, by Pope John Paul II.

Legacy There are about 1,200 sisters active in Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Quotes "Work in full simplicity" "We're in God's hands, and we are so very well" "Our mission is to educate through heart and love "The will of God is my paradise"