La Plata – Argentina (Tuesday, 02/24/2015, Gaudium Press) On February 25 Blessed Maria Ludovica De Angelis, who died in La Plata in 1962 and was beatified by St. John Paul II in 2005, will be remembered. The celebration will include a Mass celebrated in the cathedral of La Plata by Bishop Nicolas Baisi, Auxiliary Bishop of La Plata. The faithful in general and particularly the priests, are being invited for the Mass.
“Blessed Ludovica invites us to generously live in charity and to do our works with an authentic and courageous will in doing what is good,” said Bishop Baisi, who added that she is “a marvelous example of religious life”, that can offer a remarkable contribution for those working in health centers.
“She teaches us that the consecrated life in the Church, when lived in depth and being rooted in Christ, always produces fruits of holiness,” the Bishop wrote.
Blessed Ludovica was born October 24, 1880, in the village of St. Gregory, in the Abruzzo, in central Italy. She joined the Daughters of Mercy which were founded by Santa Maria Josefa Rossello, on November 14, 1904. Three years later she came to Argentina and was assigned to the Children’s Hospital in La Plata, which now bears her name.
“Do good to all, no matter who,” was her motto. Tireless and passionate for Christ, whom she recognized in sick children in need, she was able to acquire operating rooms, new equipments and even a building in the city of Mar del Plata for children in their convalescence. Furthermore she opened a chapel which is now a days the Parish of Sacred Heart of Jesus in City Bell and obtained quality food for children.
For 54 years was a friend and a confidante; a counselor and a mother, a guide and a comforter of hundreds of people, of all social conditions, in City Bell. She died in the city of La Plata in 1962 at age 82. Her process of beatification began in 1996. She was declared venerable in 2001 and beatified in Rome in 2005 by Pope St. John Paul II. Her remains rest in the Cathedral of La Plata. (GPE / EPC)
