Centennial of the Birth of the Servant of God Vera Grita
(ANS – Rome – January 27, 2023) – Saturday, Jan. 28, 2023, marked the centennial of the birth of Vera Grita. She was born in Rome on Jan. 28, 1923, the second child of Amleto, a photographer by profession, and Maria Anna Zacco della Pirrera, of noble origins. The close-knit family also included her older sister Giuseppa (called Pina) and younger sisters Liliana and Santa Rosa (called Rosa). On December 14 of the same year, Vera received Baptism in the parish of San Gioacchino in Prati, also in Rome.
Her birth anniversary was celebrated on Jan.
28 with a Eucharist at 11:00 a.m. presided over by Bishop Vittorio Lupi, bishop
emeritus of Savona-Noli, at the church of Mary Help of Christians in Savona. In
the afternoon at the seminary, there was a lecture on “Saints in the Life of
the Church” by Fr. Pierluigi Cameroni, postulator general of the causes of saints
of the Salesian Family, which followed by the presentation of some figures of
sainthood related to the Ligurian Church.
In the 2023 Strenna, entitled “AS THE YEAST IN
TODAY’S HUMAN FAMILY: The Lay Dimension of the Family of Don Bosco,” the Rector
Major speaks of Vera Grita, a Salesian Cooperator:
“Born in Rome on January 28, 1923, she lived
and studied in Savona, where she obtained her teacher’s certificate. At the age
of 21, during a sudden air raid on the city (1944), she was overwhelmed and
trampled underfoot by the fleeing crowd, with serious consequences for her
physically, and from then on she remained marked by suffering. She went
unnoticed in her short earthly life, teaching in the schools of the Ligurian
hinterland, where she earned the esteem and affection of everyone for her kind
and meek character. She attended Mass in Savona at the Salesian parish of Mary
Help of Christians, and was regular in her use of the sacrament of Penance. A
Salesian Cooperator from 1967, she carried out her call in the total gift of
herself to the Lord, who in an extraordinary way gave himself to her in the
depths of her heart with the “Voice,” the “Word” with which he communicated the
Work of the Living Tabernacles to her. Under the impulse of divine grace and
accepting the mediation of her spiritual guides, Vera Grita responded to the
gift of God by witnessing in her life, marked by the constant fatigue of
illness, to the encounter with the Risen One and dedicating herself with heroic
generosity to the teaching and education of her students, attending to the
needs of her family, and witnessing to a life of evangelical poverty. She died
on December 22, 1969, at the age of 46, in a room in the hospital in Pietra
Ligure.
“Vera Grita attests first of all to an
all-embracing Eucharistic orientation, which became explicit, especially in her
final years of life. She did not think in terms of programs, apostolic
initiatives, projects: she accepted the fundamental “project” that is Jesus
himself, until he made her life his own. Today’s world attests to a great need
for the Eucharist. Her journey through the strenuous labor of her days also
offers a new lay perspective on holiness: becoming an example of conversion,
acceptance, and sanctification for the “poor,” the “frail,” and the “sick” who
can recognize themselves and find hope in her.
“As Salesian Cooperator, Vera Grita lived,
worked, taught, and encountered people with her strong Salesian sensitivity:
from the loving-kindness of her discreet but effective presence, to her ability
to be loved by children and families; from the pedagogy of kindness that she
carried out with her constant smile, to her generous readiness with which,
regardless of the inconvenience, she turned in preference to the least, to the
little ones, to the distant, to the forgotten; from her generous passion for
God and his glory, to the way of the cross, letting everything be taken from
her in her illness.”
A
video is available on ANSChannel to learn more about the figure of
Servant of God Vera Grita.
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