Saint Virginia Centurione Bracelli

Virginia Centurione was born in Genoa, Italy, in 1587 to a noble family, and was married at fifteen to Gaspare Grimaldi Bracelli, with whom she had two daughters. Widowed at twenty, she refused to remarry and gave herself to prayer and to serving the poor. During the famine and plague of 1629–1630 she took in abandoned girls and the sick, and later rented the Monte Calvario convent, which became a refuge and hospital for hundreds of people. Her work gave rise to the Sisters of Our Lady of Refuge on Mount Calvary; she died on December 15, 1651, and was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2003.

She also worked as a peacemaker between quarreling noble families of Genoa. Her congregations still serve the poor in Italy and other countries.