Two Blesseds Inspired by Dominic Savio

Two Blesseds Inspired by Dominic Savio

Anna Kolesarova and Teresa Bracco

The feast of St. Dominic Savio is May 6. This year, rather than posting something biographical, I’m proposing something inspirational, published a year and a half ago by ANS.

(ANS – Rome – Sept. 11, 2018) - Anna Kolesarova was beatified on September 1 in Košice, Slovakia, by Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, the new prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, representing the Holy Father. Teresa Bracco was beatified 20 years ago by John Paul II. In addition to the very young age at which they died, these two women have in common their devotion to St. Dominic Savio, who inspired their lives.

Anna was born in the village of Vysoka nad Uhom, in eastern Slovakia, in a deeply religious family, who had her baptized the day after her birth. Then, at the age of ten, she received the Eucharist and subsequently confirmed her faith with Confirmation.

Her life proceeded quietly until the Russian army occupied her village. During a military raid on November 22, 1944, Anna and her parents hid themselves, but a soldier discovered them and started making advances to the young woman. She resisted, to defend her chastity. The soldier’s reaction was the most terrible: he killed her in front of her family.

Because of the difficult situation, the relatives had to celebrate the funeral in secret and only after the fall of the regime came back to talk about this heroic girl. The young people then began to pray at her grave, where the motto of Dominic Savio is engraved: “Death, but not sin.”

The same motto inspired the whole life of another young blessed, Teresa Bracco. Born in Santa Giulia, province of Savona, Italy, and raised in a deeply religious family, from an early age she showed a singular inclination to piety. Her spiritual life grew day by day. She was much struck by an image of Dominic Savio bearing his famous motto “Death, but not sin,” so she placed it at the head of her bed and made it her life program.

Her life was turned upside down in August 1944, when Nazi troops occupied northern Italy. Trying to escape, she was captured by a soldier who tried to abuse her. She fought bravely to defend her chastity, and this cost her life; the soldier shot her dead.

Anna and Teresa defended their own purity at the cost of their lives, keeping faithfully Dominic Savio’s motto “Death, but not sin,” which had inspired their whole existence.

Blogger’s note: A woman who has been raped has not lost her chastity or virtue, or committed a sin. That doesn’t make the resistance of Anna or Teresa (or of St. Maria Goretti) to the violence imposed upon them any less heroic.